Tom Brady, New England Patriots / Image: Zuma Press

Sure, the Bills practically handed the Pats the game with a bonehead costly late turnover. But Tom shook off some early rust and did what he had to do. He completed 39 passes for 378 yards with two late touchdown passes, making up 11 points in less than five minutes to get the win. And in the National Football League, it doesn’t matter how you win. It only matters if you win. And as long as Tom Brady is under center, the New England Patriots have a pretty good idea how it’s done.

Source: NFL.com

Post from: Every Morning Quarterback

Tom Brady Returns, Finds a Way to Win

The NFL announced its 2009 Kickoff Weekend primetime television schedule today — including a Monday night “AFL 50th” doubleheader — and the Thanksgiving Day national TV tripleheader.

In a tradition that began in 2004, the Super Bowl champion annually hosts the NFL Thursday night season kickoff the following year. This September 10 at 8:30 PM ET on NBC, the Super Bowl XLIII champion Pittsburgh Steelers will host the AFC South champion Tennessee Titans, who had an NFL-best 13-3 record last season. The Sunday night primetime game (8:30 PM ET) on NBC will feature a division matchup as the Green Bay Packers host the Chicago Bears. Green Bay and Chicago have won seven of the past eight NFC North titles. On Monday night, September 14, ESPN will host a Monday Night Football doubleheader that will be part of the NFL’s celebration of the 50th anniversary season of the American Football League. The four clubs competing that night began playing in the inaugural 1960 AFL season. The first game (7:00 PM ET) will send the Buffalo Bills to Foxboro to visit the New England Patriots, the decade’s winningest team (102-42 since 2000). The MNF nightcap (10:15 PM ET) will be an AFC West battle as the Oakland Raiders host the three-time defending AFC West champion San Diego Chargers.

Continuing an innovation introduced in 2006, the NFL will serve up three nationally-televised games on Thanksgiving Day. The early game (FOX, 12:30 PM ET) will be an NFC North meeting of the Green Bay Packers at the Detroit Lions. The second game (CBS, 4:15 PM ET) features the Oakland Raiders visiting the Dallas Cowboys in the Raiders’ first Thanksgiving game since 1970. The Thanksgiving primetime game will be at 8:20 PM ET on NFL Network with the defending NFC East champion New York Giants visiting the Denver Broncos, marking the first Thanksgiving contest in Denver since 1963.

The announcement of the Kickoff Weekend and Thanksgiving Day games was made today by National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell at the NFL Annual Meeting in Dana Point, California. The rest of the 2009 regular-season schedule will be completed and announced in April.

Source: NFL Media

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NFL Announces 2009 Primetime Kickoff Weekend and Thanksgiving Day Games

National Football League Blogcast, NFL Blogcast

After watching Buffalo Bills quarterback Trent Edwards last night, it’s pretty clear he’s a young player who has lost his confidence. In a heartbreaking 29-27 defeat at the hands of the Cleveland Browns that put the Bills’ 2008 playoff hopes on life support, Trent threw three interceptions (in his first six attempts, no less) and resorted predominantly to dump-off passes to survive the evening. That’s eight INTs, two fumbles and a safety for Trent during the Bills’ current four-game losing streak, leaving him frustrated and clueless:

“You start seeing things that you’re not really seeing, and you’re doing things that you’re not normally used to doing. Right now, I don’t really have any good answers.”

That is not what you want to hear your starting quarterback saying. I’ve gone from heralding Trent as the next great NFL quarterback to slowly but surely realizing he’s suffering through a slump he may or may not recover from. I do know this. By no means am I an expert on the quarterback position in the National Football League. But Trent needs to regain his confidence even if he’s not confident. What does that mean? Let’s use the Browns game as an example. At his position, I think he needs to keep “slinging it” or recede into the night. Unfortunately for the Bills last night, Trent chose the latter. Ten of his 16 completions were easy tosses to running back Marshawn Lynch. Now, one might argue that’s better than throwing more interceptions, but it’s not playing to win. It’s playing not to lose. And that usually leads to a loss.

Trent can still turn things around and be a great NFL quarterback. He’s already proven he has the physical capabilities and the leadership qualities. If he overcomes the mental part of the game — the part that’s holding him and this team back right now — I think he’ll have an outstanding career.

Source: NFL.com, Photo: Newscom

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Trent Edwards Has Lost Confidence

In response to some of his players’ (Jamal Lewis, Josh Cribbs) comments that the team quit against the Denver Broncos last week, Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel said it just isn’t so and took the remarks seriously:

“I think players respect me as a coach, they play for me as a coach so when that word ‘quit’ comes up you take it personally. The team is my team. The product that is out there on the field is a reflection of me. When they do good, I do good. When they do bad, I do bad. When they say that the team quit, it’s saying that I quit. And I know that I am not a quitter and my players don’t quit.”

Coach Crennel advised his team to stop looking back and start looking ahead to their upcoming MNF game against the Buffalo Bills. As I said in a previous post, this is a very intriguing game for two desperate teams — the Browns (3-6) being more desperate than the Bills (5-4), but both teams are searching for an identity and it might take this game to find out if either team has one. It’s not rocket science on my part, but I believe the loser of this game will miss the playoffs this season. For the Browns, it might already be too late.

Source: ClevelandBrowns.com

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Romeo Crennel Says Browns Didn’t Quit

On the eve of the Presidential election, ESPN will present interviews with Democratic candidate Barack Obama and Republican candidate John McCain at halftime of tomorrow’s Monday Night Football game between the Washington Redskins and Pittsburgh Steelers. Chris Berman will be conducting the interviews during the day tomorrow and ESPN will air them during halftime. I’m actually interested to hear what Boom’s questions are.

Source: ESPN.com

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Obama, McCain to Appear on MNF

National Football League Blogcast, NFL Blogcast

Here’s some good advice: Don’t kick the ball to Reggie Bush. New Orleans Saints running back/punt returner Reggie Bush electrified 70,000+ Louisiana Superdome patrons and tied an NFL record by returning two punts (71 and 64 yards) for touchdowns in last night’s Monday Night Football game against the Minnesota Vikings. ESPN had him clocked at over 20 mph on both returns. The only problem? It wasn’t enough to overcome four turnovers and 11 penalties in a 30-27 loss to the Vikes.

Source: NFL.com, Photo: Newscom

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Reggie Bush Ties NFL Record

Pittsburgh Steelers rookie (and I emphasize rookie) running back Rashard Mendenhall is buddies with Baltimore Ravens rookie running back Ray Rice. The two will face-off this weekend as the Steelers play the Ravens on Monday Night Football. Rashard is getting his first start because of an injury to starting RB Willie Parker, so he decided to do a little trash talking to Ray via text message about how he was going to have a big game against the Ravens top-ranked defense. Of course, he was just joking around (every joke has some truth), but Ray let the defense know about this txt and now Baltimore has some extra motivation. According to Ravens linebacker Bart Scott:

“He said later that he was just joking, but it’s too late. Thanks for the bulletin-board material, rookie.”

I don’t know how close Rashard and Ray are, but I don’t think I would trust Ray with any confidential information in the future if I were Rashard Mendenhall. Not that this was confidential, but did he really think Ray would keep this information to himself? Obviously not. Instead, he opened his vault. Now the Ravens are really fired up. Not that they needed it. They haven’t allowed a 100-yard rusher in 21 straight games, the longest active streak in the league. And they’ve only given up an average of 161.5 yards through their first two games. (FYI, the Steelers are second at 234.) I expect a low-scoring but always physical MNF brawl between the Steelers and Ravens. The question is who will get the last LOL.

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Rashard Mendenhall Text Message

National Football League Blogcast, NFL Blogcast

Philadelphia Eagles rookie wide receiver/kick returner DeSean Jackson hauled in a 60-yard pass from QB Donovan McNabb against the Dallas Cowboys last night but forgot to take the ball an extra yard across the goal line with him for the touchdown. It didn’t end up mattering because the Eagles scored on the next play, but he looked ridiculous in the process. Rookie mistake? No, just a dumb mistake and he knows it:

“Things happen. It was just one of those things. I was just overexcited, just trying to have some fun. I’m young, but I’m kind of mad at myself. I could have had a touchdown.”

DeSean has turned out to be a real gem for the Eagles otherwise — two games, 12 catches, 216 yards. But no touchdowns. By the way, the Eagles lost the game 41-37.

Source: MercuryNews.com

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DeSean Jackson Bonehead Play on MNF

It took Ricky Williams almost two years to get back into the NFL and in one-fell-swoop he’s out for the season. Against the Pittsburgh Steelers on MNF, Ricky gained 15 yards on six carries before tearing a chest muscle and leaving the game. I can’t say it was a bad idea for Ricky to be in this game. Then again, under the ridiculous conditions, it probably was a bad idea to have anyone in this game. In Ricky’s case, though, not having had any contact for such a long time, there was no telling what was going to happen. It’s unfortunate because he won’t get a chance to “audition” for the Dolphins or any other team, so his saga will roll into 2008 with a lot of questions still unanswered.

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Ricky Williams’ Return Cut Short, Miami Dolphins RB Ends Season With Chest Injury

The Miami Dolphins are the best 0-11 team I’ve ever seen, but they’re still 0-11. They’ve now lost six games by three points each after dropping an ugly, soggy 3-0 MNF contest to the Steelers last night. Oh, and here’s a tip for the Steelers — Field Turf. Try it, you’ll like it. The Heinz Field natural grass surface is crap. They host two teams (the Steelers and Pittsburgh Panthers) plus numerous high school championships. I can’t believe the powers-that-be think this is an adequate way to present a game. It’s dangerous for the players and it takes away from the quality of play.

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Pittsburgh Steelers Win on Heinz Field Mud, Dolphins Remain Winless After MNF Slopfest