NFC South Week 15 Wrap Up

                 NFC South Week 15 Wrap Up
 
By Rafael Garcia
Sr. Contributing Writer-Football Reporters Online
Southeast Region
 
Dallas 24 New Orleans 17
Now that the Saints have gotten the perfect record thing out of the way maybe they can get back to playing football. The last month has seen this team struggle with a few teams and they have been exposed on defense as well. This past Saturday the Cowboys had aspirations of beating the Saints. Granted, it was a long shot but they still had a chance. Players like Tony Romo said that if the Boys played their game they could win. Well it appears that the rest of the world didn’t believe when Dallas did and they came out smoking. They put pressure on Drew Brees from the start of the game and ended up sacking him four times while forcing two fumbles that Brees lost. He was hit on many occasions and for three quarters could not put his team in the end zone. Dallas struck immediately in the first when Romo hit Miles Austin for a 49-yard touchdown to make it 7-0. At halftime is was 14-3 and when Marion Barber ran it in from two in the third the game looked lost to the Saints. In the fourth it became a different story as Brees began to move his team and finally hit pay dirt when Mike Bell scored from one-yard out. Now it was 24-10 with just over 12 minutes to go. When Lance Moore pulled in a Brees pass to make it 24-17 the Saints were back in it. Dallas got the ball back and looked to go three and out when Romo hooked up with Austin for a huge 32-yard gain and the first down. After moving the ball 74 yards on 10 plays the Cowboys set up for a 24-yard chip shot by Nick Folk to extend the lead to 10. Somehow it hit the upright and the Saints got the ball back with a chance to tie or win the game. So here were the Saints with the ball and a little more than two minutes to go. The ball was at their 20 and Brees proceeded to move the ball down the field. Just like that DeMarcus Ware stepped in and stripped Brees for the second time of the day and that was that. New Orleans was no longer undefeated and they could now look to the bigger challenge of finishing with the number one seed in the NFC. 19-0 is good, but more than that, they want finish strong in December and January to get to the Super Bowl. 
 
Atlanta 10 New York Jets 7
The Falcons came into this game with nothing to play for and for about 58 minutes they played just like that. The Jets defense pushed them around and dominated for most of the game. The Falcons did get on the scoreboard first when Matt Bryant hit a 24-yard field goal to make it 3-0 in the first. That would all the offense Atlanta cold muster as they punted seven times after that and missed a field goal later. They finished with 238 yards of offense and 73 of those came on the final drive. Matt Ryan returned at quarterback and was just 16-34 for 152 yards and one touchdown. The running game was ineffective as Michael Turner hurt himself again and Jason Snelling could not get off. Atlanta had only 12 first downs and they were just 7-18 on third down efficiency. Still as the saying goes you have to play the full 60 minutes, the Jets did not, and the Falcons did. With 4:27 left in the game the Falcons got the ball with one last shot at putting a dent in the Jets playoff aspirations. On a third and five from their own 32 Ryan hit Jerius Norwood for nine yards and the first down. On another third down play Ryan got another first down when he hit Roddy White for 16 yards and a face mask penalty on the Jets moved the ball to the New York 27. One last third down from the six and this time it failed when Ryan’s pass to Tony Gonzalez fell short. The Falcons took a timeout to discuss their options while the Jets knew all they had to do was get a stop and remain one game behind the Patriots in the AFC East. They decided to go for it and lined up in the shotgun again. They threw the same pass to Gonzalez again and this time he caught it in the end zone for the lead with 1:38 left in the game. The Jets took over but Mark Sanchez was intercepted for the third time on the game and Atlanta pulled out the victory. They were able to win the game and put the Jets playoff hopes in jeopardy. This is how you play football when you are out of the playoff hunt. Stay hungry and play with pride.
 
Tampa Bay 24 Seattle 7
Near the end of the game the stands were about empty, but some very irritated fans stayed to watch their team tank another game. The Bucs had just put a whipping on their team to win just their second game of the year. Josh Freeman bounced back from two horrible games to throw two touchdown passes while going 16-26 for 205 yards. Derrick Ward and Cadillac Williams each ran for a touchdown and Connor Barth kicked three field goals as Tampa Bay won on the road for the first time since last year. The Tampa defense recorded a sack; four interceptions and a lost fumble to the hapless Seahawks. Williams and Ward combined for 31 carries for 133 yards and Kellen Winslow chipped in with 93 yards on six receptions. Their record is now 2-12 but the team has been playing inspired football even when they are losing. It has been a rough season but some of the players feel like the team is headed in the right direction. Head coach Raheem Morris is in his first year and we will see if he makes it to a second. One thing is for sure with Freeman, Williams and Ward the team has a future to build on. They also have player s like Winslow and a kicker that is sure fire. Now let’s see how they put those pieces together for the final two games of the year. Granted they are at New Orleans and then at home for the finale against the Falcons. Still there is room for learning and working towards next year.
 
Carolina 26 Minnesota 7
Once again no one knows what Panther team will show up but if this one would show up every week they would be in the playoff running now. With no reason to play except to play the game itself, the Panthers stuck to Brett Favre and the Vikings in dominating fashion. They scored 20 unanswered points in the fourth quarter and sent the Vikings reeling. Matt Moore had a career day going 21-33 for 299 yards and his first three-touchdown game of his career. Jonathan Stewart ran all over the Viking defense for 109 yards on 25 carries and a rushing touchdown. He also had a touchdown catch from two-yards out to cap the scoring. The Panther defense was fantastic harassing Favre repeatedly and sacking him four times. Julius Peppers was in Favre face all night to the point where head coach Brad Childress thought of removing his star quarterback for safety purposes. Favre got angry and the two had a heated discussion. It was all for naught as the Panthers came out firing in the fourth as Steve Smith pulled in a 42-yard pass for the score to make it 12-7. Smith finished the game with nine catches for 157 yards and the Carolina defense held the Vikings to 10 first downs, 237 total yards and 1-10 on third down conversions. It was a dominating performance for sure but the Panthers need a lot of help. They have no answer to the question for the quarterback of the future. Sure Moore is 4-2 but he is still unproven. The defense will undergo an overhaul and there is still the question about the future of coach John Fox. Still for one Sunday things were right in Carolina and they will take that any day.

The All-New 2010 Cadillac SRX: Stills - Great Commercial

Cadillac gets an "A" from me for its modern integration of music, car, and lighting. The music's pop culture cool. The lighting is always for night, and the car's color is generally silver. The result is a clean look that communicates Cadillac as a youthful luxury brand.

Santa Claus NORAD Santa Tracker embeded here

Ok, so this business of going to the NORAD website to track Santa Claus' trip around the World is a bit much and I'm in the middle of watching It's A Wonderful Life, so I decided to embed the tracker right here in my blog:



As of 6 PM PST / 9 PM EST, Santa Claus is in Goose Green, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), but he's moving really fast! (If the embed doesn't work in your browser, click on the NORAD link.)


Merry Christmas!

Santa Claus is in St. Petersburg, Russia

Merry Christmas everyone!! This Santa update has Santa Claus in St. Petersburg, Russia, according to the NORAD Santa Tracker. Santa's next stop is Kokkola, Finland.  The time is 1:08 PST - 4:08 EST in America.

As I wrote in my last blog post on Santa Claus...

The North American Aerospace Defense Command, and the 601st Air and Space Operations Center, has tracked Santa's flight since 1955. You can track Santa's Worldwide gift delivery flight from the NORAD website: http://www.noradsanta.org The site is multi-lingual.

Or, if you want to call for tracking information, NORAD's Colorado operations center will start taking calls at 5 AM. The number is 877-Hi-NORAD (877-446-6723) toll-free. You can also send an email to noradtrackssanta@gmail.com.

Stay tuned!

Senate vote on Health Care Reform President Obama's victory

In less than one year President Barack Obama has managed to do what's never been done in 60 years: spearhead the passage of the reform of the American Health Care System. A nice Christmas present delivered from 60 of Santa Claus' elves in the U.S. Senate, plus one.

Somewhere in Heaven, Senator Ted Kennedy is smiling, and giving a thumbs-up.

(Where's Santa? Well, he's in his sleigh traveling around the World, and you can track him here.)

New Jersey Sen. Bob Mendendez is one of Santa's helpers. Senator Mendendez sent an email to me announcing this moment in history this morning. What he wrote says it all:

Today Senate Democrats passed the most sweeping health care reform package this country has ever seen, and we couldn't have done it without your help.

I can't emphasize enough what this legislation will mean for millions of Americans without adequate health care. It reduces costs for families, increases access, adds choice and competition, and forces insurance companies to put patients first. "Pre-existing conditions" will no longer exist. And seniors will enjoy reduced drug costs and the assurance that Medicare will continue to provide the great care they deserve. Strident GOP objection won't change any of these facts.

The measure will be reconciled with the House version and then signed by President Obama. And not one moment too soon. It's fundamentally wrong that Americans who get sick or injured can be kicked off their insurance, become bankrupt and lose their homes. We're better than that, and this legislation proves it.

Senator Mendendez is right. Some wrongheadedly wrote we should forget health care reform and fix are economy. What they don't understand is our social safety net is so badly damaged that people without jobs could not have health care. That has to change. It has.

Our economy is so badly damaged that it will take years to repair if the objective is a restoration to the kind of economic power America enjoyed in the 60s. I personally think we can do it, but it takes a jettisoning of any idea that Federal Government spending is bad, period. Our economic competitor nations have no problem using government subsidy to help business, and they have taken our position as the export leader away from us. I'm referring to China and Germany and the European Union. It's time for America to wake up and stop this tom-foolery nonsense about spending.

Now that we're on our way toward a health care system that's workable, we can do that.

The Health Care Reform bill passed this morning is called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  According to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the reform will result in the coverage of 94 percent of all Americans, including those estimated 31 million not insured.  But what's best in addition is that it provides tax credits to small businesses.

The plan is really centrist - neither really left or right wing.  It takes care of a long-standing problem that's caused many to question America's direction: it's ability to take care of its own.

The Death of the Republican Party

The passage of Heath Care Reform means the death of the Republican Party. Can you immagine any Republican effectively explaining to an electorate why they voted against help for the uninsured? And with the electorate becoming more ethnically diverse, Republicans asking for the vote of members of racial groups who've been shut out of health care coverage is going to be an uphill battle.

Even with this, Democrats can't lose focus. The next step is the merging of the House and Senate bills into one. Some Republicans may discover logic and realize they don't want to be on the wrong side of positive change, so getting a good bill should not be a big problem.

But this is Congress.

Stay tuned.

Santa Claus is coming; track Santa on Christmas Eve 2009

It's Christmas Eve 2009 and Santa Claus is on his sleigh. You can track Santa Claus' trip using NORAD.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command, and the 601st Air and Space Operations Center, has tracked Santa's flight since 1955. You can track Santa's Worldwide gift delivery flight from the NORAD website: http://www.noradsanta.org  The site is multi-lingual.

Or, if you want to call for tracking information, NORAD's Colorado operations center will start taking calls at 5 AM.  The number is 877-Hi-NORAD (877-446-6723) toll-free. You can also send an email to noradtrackssanta@gmail.com.

Cal vs Utah - Cal's Poinsettia Bowl loss is very disappointing

In watching Cal vs. Utah, we saw Cal's season in microcosm: a strong start followed by a surprisingly disappointing middle, then a promising final quarter that comes up short. The Cal vs Utah game, again like the season, was lost by our Cal Bears due to a combination of a poor offensive game plan, terrible execution by quarterback and receiver, little defensive pass rush, a lack of use of the blitz, coaching inflexibility, and poor tackling.

Cal's uphill battle toward success

The California Golden Bears lost the Poinsettia Bowl to the Utah Utes 37 to 27. This was a game Cal could have won.

It started off with promise: Cal Running Back Shane Vereen (20 for 122, 6.1 yard average and two touchdowns) ran for 36 yards and a touchdown on Vereen's nifty stop to let the defense flow by him, then shooting through the resulting hole like a missile. Cal's Defense followed that with Eddie Young's 31 yard interception return for a touchdown. The Bears were up by a quick 14 and Utah could have folded.

But the Utes didn't.

Utah did what I wish Coach Jeff Tedford would do: forget offensive balance and go for the opponents defensive weakness. In this case it was Cal's Defensive Secondary. But Utah didn't attack by throwing deep; they used a steady mix of screens, wide receiver bubble screens, play action passes, and short swing passes, and crossing routes.

On many occasions Cal missed tackles, and was so confused on defense that Cal Defensive Coordinator Bob Gregory was "calling scared", leaving his charges in base three-four, and three-three-five defenses. If Cal blitzed, it was one person, sending four. That was it, except for one time late in the 4th quarter when Gregory elected to turn them lose as Utah threatened to score.  The Cal Defense came up with a great stop.

At first, I thought Utah's own bad play calls were going to help Cal. Like failing to realize that Cal wasn't going to play straight man-for-man against their three-to-one-side receiver set. Instead, Cal's Gregory left two defenders against three receivers. Utah didn't exploit that in the first quarter of the first half.

But in the second quarter, they did, calling receiver screens because they had the numbers advantage. Watching Cal not adjust to this was punishment on Festivus. Painful.

That set the tone for the game.

Once again, Cal Quarterback Kevin Riley (20 of 36 for 211 yards, one touchdown and 2 interceptions for a passer rating I'm not going to post) was left to suffer under a game plan dictated by Coach Tedford's stubborn need to establish a running game, even when the defense was loaded to stop Shane Vareen. When Cal did throw, the passes were downfield to receivers running into a defense that was sitting back waiting for them to come to that depth.

Utah gave Cal the chance to call simple five yard "stick" passes, and Cal didn't do it.

But not all of it was Tedford and Cal Offensive Coordinator Andy Ludwig's fault. Riley made some predictably terrible throws. Specifically, the flat passes he always has missed on all year long, but Tedford and company keep calling them. Look, Riley needs to learn to make that throw, but he's not done it all year long, I don't know why they think he's going to get religion when they call it.

I have the impression Coach Tedford calls some offensive plays that they may not have practiced because they're the right technical call, but Riley's not the right person to make the throw that's called for.

But one throw Riley did not make was all his fault. On a third and eight in the fourth quarter with about 10 minutes left, Riley dropped back and looked to his right with Utah blitzing backers on the left. Instead of Riley calmly throwing to Vareen in the right flat with green space, Riley held the ball and got plastered. Riley's got to develop that all important feel for the rush. If he wants to survive.

I could write for days about this game, but it's Festivus, Christmas is a day away, and I'm getting ready and helping my Mom, and I don't coach Cal's Offense and they don't ask me to send them plays.

All I do is write this funky blog.

Oh, did Cal miss Jahvid Best? Yes. But Shane Vareen's done a wonderful job. Hats' off to him.

GO BEARS!

Stay tuned.