Tuesday, October 12, 2010

The Violence on the Lambs

After dominating the Seahawks last week in St. Louis, the Rams went on the road to face the Detroit Lions, a winless team whose roster features five recent exiles from Seattle.

The Lambs laid down for the Lions. Evidently, after the exertion of ending the Seahawks' 10-game win streak against them, the Rams were running on fumes. They let the Sea Lions inflict a fortyburger blowout upon them, while looking a lot like last year's Lambs.

A few ex-Seahawks played a large role in the victory. Perhaps their familiarity with the Rams helped them rise to the occasion.

Nate Burleson had a breakout game. He led the Lions in receiving with 4 catches for 56 yards, including one touchdown. The score came on a pass he snatched at the line of scrimmage, putting the former punt returner in space with the ball, where he is most dangerous. Burleson eluded the Lamb defenders and sprinted 26 yards to the goal line. Always exuberant in celebration, Nate then punted the ball into the stands, releasing the frustration of a theretofore-scoreless season. The refs interpreted this as unsportsmanlike conduct, and penalized the Lions accordingly.

Julian Peterson looked like the dominating player he used to be, making 7 tackles, assisting with 4 more, and sacking Sam Bradford once. It also appears that Peterson--though still an outside linebacker--calls the defensive signals for Detroit, so his contributions extend beyond the stat sheet. The Lions held St. Louis to just 6 points.

Rob Sims continues to represent on Detroit's O-Line. The unit allowed only one sack, and their blocking allowed the offense to score 30 points. They did this very efficiently, with just 322 yards of total offense, thanks to favorable field position. (Detroit started several drives near midfield, as St. Louis opened the game with an unsuccessful onside kick attempt and then, late in the game, in a desperate bid to come back from far behind, the Rams turned the ball over on downs, giving good field position to the  their opponents.)

Several Seattle castoffs contributed to the triumph of the Baltimore Blackhawks over the Broncos.

Despite his game-winning catch the week before, Housh remains merely a third receiver for the Ravens. He contributed little to Baltimore's 31-17 drubbing of Denver. Targeted 4 times, Houshmandzadeh caught 2 balls for 24 yards and had another reception nullified by a flag for offensive pass interference. With under a minute to play, TJ helped the Ravens preserve their margin of victory as a member of their "hands team," recovering an onside kick attempted by the Broncos.

Josh Wilson--owner of the highest kick return average in Seattle's team history--returned every kickoff for the Ravens. His longest return was 26 yards, but his net average for the 3 kickoffs he fielded was only 20 yards, owing to penalties on the other 2 plays (holding, illegal block). Wilson also continues to play more on defense, where he recorded 3 tackles and one penalty for pass interference.

Cory Redding made two tackles and sacked Kyle Orton once.

Ken Hamlin--now a backup safety for the Ravens--made a play on kickoff coverage, recovering a fumble at the bottom of a pile.

Owen Schmitt continues to do yeoman work for the Eagles, who landed in San Francisco last Sunday. Schmitt's blocking helped keep Kevin Kolb on his feet and let LeSean McCoy run for nearly 100 yards. He caught 2 balls on third down for a total of 19 yards, but got stopped short of the yellow line both times. Best of all, Schmitt helped his team keep 49ers winless, condemning the preseason NFC West favorites to an 0-5 record.

Finally, Seneca Wallace made the best case yet for himself as Cleveland's starting quarterback.

First, he played well, completing 11 passes on 15 attempts for 139 yards and one touchdown, a nice 19-yard rainbow to Peyton Hillis in the end zone.

Then, at the end of the first half, having led the Browns to a slim 7-6 lead over the Falcons, Wallace got hurt and let Jake Delhomme take over. Evidently, the Ragin' Cajun mistook the game for a Mardi Gras parade, and proceeded to throw the ball to Atlanta defenders as if he were hurling beads at drunk, topless women. Final score: Atlanta 20, Cleveland 10.

Pork Chop Womack & the rest of the Browns' O-Line performed poorly. Unable to open holes for the team's runners--Cleveland gained less than 50 yards on 20 carries--the front five also allowed 3 sacks, one of which caused Wallace's high ankle sprain. I imagine that everyone in the Dawg Pound wishes Seneca a swift recovery from this dreaded injury.

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