John Riordan
THE pressure is mounting on two of the more established NFL coaches after the Philadelphia Eagles and the San Diego Chargers each suffered demoralising defeats yesterday.
A season that had begun with so much promise for the Eagles ended at the hands of the increasingly impressive New England Patriots, leading to the notoriously fickle Philadelphia fanbase to call for the sacking of Andy Reid.
Tom Brady threw for 361 yards and three touchdowns as the Patriots won 38-20 despite the best efforts of injured quarterback Michael Vick’s stand-in Vince Young.
“The way we played, I can understand,” Reid said afterwards when asked about the reaction in the stands.
“Andy’s a tremendous guy,” Young said, defending Reid. “I have the utmost respect for him. Fans don’t understand some of the situations that go on during the game. You can’t put it all on Andy. We’re going to always continue to keep fighting hard, playing hard for him.”
Norv Turner, in his fifth season as the San Diego Chargers coach, could only watch on as Tim Tebow inspired his Denver Broncos to yet another unorthodox victory, condemning the Southern California outfit to their sixth defeat in-a-row, their worst run of results in ten years.
In fact Denver were given a lifeline in overtime when San Diego’s Nick Novak missed a 53-yard field goal attempt, allowing Tebow to drive his team back down towards the San Diego endzone, setting up a game-winning Matt Prater 37-yard field goal with 29 seconds left.
“This is a special team, a special team when you have a bunch of guys that when things aren’t going good we get closer instead of pulling apart,” Tebow said afterwards. “The number one reason we are like that is because we believe in each other, we believe in the coaching staff.”
Denver are now 6-5 for the season, sneaking into the AFC wild card race along with the New York Jets (who came from behind to beat the Buffalo Bills 28-24) and the Tennessee Titans (who won 23-17 at home to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers).
Just above that trio in the two automatic berths, are the Pittsburgh Steelers, who had a 13-9 win at the Kansas City Chiefs in the late clash, and the Cincinnati Bengals, who had a hard-fought and confidence-boosting victory over their arch-rivals, the luckless Cleveland Browns who succumbed to a late field goal to lose 23-20.
The Baltimore Ravens still control the AFC North ahead of Pittsburgh and Cincinnati while New England are looking unstoppable in the Eastern Division.
Although the Houston Texans extended their lead in the AFC South, they were dealt a further injury blow after replacement quarterback Matt Leinart, in for the injured Matt Schaub, suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in his team’s 20-13 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars.
“It’s pretty disappointing. It’s tough to swallow, but we’ll just move forward,” Leinart said. “Everything that’s happened to me, this was a great opportunity... It’s unfortunate, but I’m not going to give up. It’s not my nature. I’ll just keep moving forward and figure this thing out one step at a time.”
Denver’s rivals in the AFC West, the Oakland Raiders, beat the Chicago Bears who stumbled badly in their first game without quarterback Jay Cutler. Oakland were forced to lean heavily on kicker Sebastian Janikowski whose team-record six field goals were vital to their 25-20 winning margin. [NOTE: this paragraph edited after brain freeze placed Janikowski on the wrong team. An ironic error given the fact he earned my fantasy team 25 points]
In the NFC, the main front runners were in action on Thanksgiving last Thursday: the Green Bay Packers winning easily at the Detroit Lions, the Dallas Cowboys struggling to overcome the Miami Dolphins at home in a thriller and the San Francisco 49ers finally losing a game, overturned at the Ravens in the battle of Harbaughs, the first pair of brothers to coach against each other in the history of the NFL.
The other NFC Division-leading side, the New Orleans Saints, welcome the New York Giants to the Superdome in tonight’s game.
The NFC wild card race is wide open with the Bears, Lions and Atlanta Falcons (who beat the Minnesota Vikings 24-14) all boasting a 7-4 record while the Giants are a game back on 6-4 with that clash at the Saints yet to be played.
Elsewhere, the Washington Redskins finally ended a six-game losing streak, beating the Seattle Seahawks 23-17, the Indianapolis Colts extended their poor run to 11 straight losses, beaten 27-19 at home by the Carolina Panthers and the Arizona Cardinals were 23-20 winners at the St Louis Rams.
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/ZHcz0RHCsDg/post.aspx
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