San Francisco 49ers Injury Updates: Frank Gore,
Joe Staley and Reggie Smith

While the Panthers are hopefully continuing to circle the drain (fingers crossed), we've got an injury update for you on some key 49ers.

According to a release from the 49ers PR folks, the biggest info is that Frank Gore is out for approximately three weeks.  The MRI results indicate Gore has a right ankle strain and a right hind foot sprain.  Given the 49ers upcoming schedule (Rams, Falcons, BYE), it is not remotely surprising that the 49ers will sit him out for that stretch of time.

Joe Staley also had an MRI after his knee contusion and has been classified as day-to-day.  We'll keep an eye on the injury report because I know I'm not the only one hoping we don't see Barry Sims on the field this Sunday.

The final update concerns safety Reggie Smith.  An MRI of Smith indicates he has a right groin strain and "will be re-evaluated in two weeks."  This is a poor development, although maybe that means playing time for Curtis Taylor.  What I do think it means is that if the team is going to sign Kory Sheets off of the practice squad, Curtis Taylor is not the guy who will be waived from the 53-man roster.

We'll make sure and keep you updated on all these injury updates.  Also, if you're looking to continue in our Panthers-Cowboys discussion, head on over to our Panthers Watch 2009 Game Thread.

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Balogun's Collegiate Career Is Over

Read The Full Article:
http://www.gnextinc.com/ousoonersblog/2009/09/baloguns-collegiate-career-is-over.
html

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Jacksonville Jaguars: The roller coaster of love

Lovin' you is really wild - Oh it's just a love rollercoaster - Step right up and get your tickets

Ohio Players'

By now, you should officially be in the throes of that emotional swell you'd receive from seeing that hot girl across the bar (or guy depending on your gender or...no need to go there).  This past Sunday you caught a glimpse of what can happen when the Jaguars look in the closet and pick out that matching ensemble.  By that I mean, both players and coaches coordinating.

So, now you find yourself going into week 4 with a Titans team coming to town looking like they've been ridden hard and put up wet.  Can you feel your heart beat a bit faster?  Is your tummy feeling funny?

Surely you find yourself contemplating the next hill they'll climb when Jack says:

"I like the energy, I like the effort. The way we’re approaching it, we will improve. It’s not maybe, it’s a matter of how much."

What's not to like?  Grabbing Battle Red Day by the horns and wrestling away all the optimism the Texans had going into their game against the lowly Jaguars.  Not folding after the Sims-Walker fumble.  When Daryl Smith recovered that football it was almost as if that girl gave you her phone number, right after laughing at you for asking.

Might I suggest you dial the number before leaving the bar.  Or maybe get a look at her in some good light.

Not to take anything away from the victory, but before the message boards and phone lines are filled with any thoughts of this team making a turn there should be some serious consideration of who the Jaguars beat.

Houston

231.7 ypg passing

204.7 ypg rushing

Compare that to the previous teams they've played:

Indianapolis

192.3 ypg passing

125.7 ypg rushing

Arizona

280.3 ypg passing (skewed by junk yardage vs Jacksonville)

79.7 ypg rushing

Had you not known, I doubt you'd be shocked if I told you the Jaguars beat the Texans by 7, lost to the Colts by 2 and lost to the Cardinals by 14. Before you point out the Jags had to throw more against Arizona, I'll remind you that, save the 36 yard run early, MJD averaged 2.5 ypc for the game.

This weekend the Titans come to town boasting the 2nd best rushing defense in the NFL, yielding 60.7 ypg.  The hope would be Garrard could exploit their 28th rated pass defense which giv es up 274.7 ypg, but that assumes the Jaguars 19th rated passing offense can improve on their 202.7 ypg average.

Defensively the Titans are again near the top in sacks with 7 for the year.

Feeling down?  Remember...this is a roller coaster.

Vincent Fuller is out for 6 weeks with a broken right forearm, hurting their depth.  Cortland Finnegan is nursing a sore hamstring. Tennessee hasn't been able to get consistency from their Special Teams and they haven't been able to hold a lead late in any of their 3 loses.

Kerry Collins has gotten progressively worse with each passing game, with no help from untimely drops by his receivers.  While C.J. has been terrorizing defenses, LenDale White has yet to add that second punch.

Yet, the one thing that cannot be ignored is that across the field stands Jeff Fisher.  In the last 7 trips, the Fisher lead Titans are 5-2 in Jacksonville Municipal Stadium.

If the opportunity is to exist for a victory it must reside with the defense.  In two of their three games the Jaguars have won the turnover battle, something the Titans have failed to do in their last two games.  Once again an immobile quarterback comes to town, this time with much less talent at receiver.  In fact, after facing Wayne, Fitzgerad and Johnson the defense should embrace the moment.  This is the game to unleash the blitz packages.

The most compelling question may be who needs this game more?  Tennessee's new mantra is "just win one game", while the Jaguars are hoping this past win will court fans to fill the stadium with their hated rival coming to town. Sending the Super Bowl contending Titans to 0-4 would be a rush for the fans and this young team. This is a great time to walk up and buy a ticket for the ride that is the 2009 Jaguar season.

- Brian Fullford

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Bengals long snapper Brad St. Louis gets "C'mon
man" from Cincy Jungle

Yep. I'm ripping off ESPN. Hey, they do it to us bloggers all of the time.

A growing concern -- well, it's so big we're not sure it's growing anymore -- is why the team's long snapper isn't, you know, long snapping. With 1:51 left in the first quarter, St. Louis snapped the football behind Kevin Huber's right ear. The football started trickling away towards midfield when one of the Broncos defenders tried to pick it up. Shayne Graham had none of that, dropped the boom on the defender, who couldn't secure the football. Another Bronco defender was about to fall on the football when Kevin Huber pushed him aside and secured the football.

All of that because St. Louis failed to do the one thing that he's getting paid $745,000 to do.

Against the Steelers, the Bengals had just scored a touchdown on Johnathan Joseph's interception return. It wasn't even close. Hell, it might hit the video board at the new Dallas Cowboys stadium. Graham simply pounced on the football and, like the rest of us, curled up in a cradle position. The irony here is that the missed snap could have actually put the Bengals in a position to win. If the PAT is made, then the Bengals could have gone with a more conservative approach late in the game and settled for a game-tying field goal (they wouldn't have gone for the first two-point conversion which failed), rather than the necessary touchdown. Hey. You guys know me. I'll spin anything into a positive. It's my required community service for my sentence of being a Bengals fan throughout the 90s.

Every snap that St. Louis was asked to do after missing the PAT, lowered my white blood cell count. I took off work today. I'm very sick. To say that I won't get nervous on every snap from this point on, is a lie. How does Marvin Lewis feel about it?

"Brad has to perform better in that situation. We’re very confident with Brad, and he has done an excellent job for a long time. Brad doesn’t have missed snaps in practice. For whatever reason, they’ve shown up in the game. We have to go back and stay confident and execute. Go back fundamentally and do a good job with his technique, and what’s he’s doing and be accurate with the snap."

In truth, neither bad snap directly led to the team losing a football game. However, there's no way anyone can have any faith in St. Louis right now, especially when the team is about to convert a game-winning field goal, or a game-tying PAT (see Denver, 2006). If his name isn't brought up again for the rest of the season, then great. If he bobbles another snap, how in the world can the Bengals justify keeping him on this squad? He's paid $745,000, which is nearly $200,000 more than Andre Caldwell, to do one thing. Are you kidding me? C'mon, man (sorry, watching Monday Night football's pregame show).

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Monday Night Football: Open Thread

More photos » by LM Otero - AP

8 days ago: Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, center, talks with New York Giants chairman Steve Tisch, right, and treasurer Jonathan Tisch before an NFL football game Sunday, Sept. 20, 2009, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Browse more photos »

Two teams thought to be NFC contenders try to get back on track. Carolina (0-2) has suffered from the continued meltdown of the previously competent Jake Delhomme, while the Cowboys (1-1) lost a tight one to the Giants last week due in large part to Tony Romo launching 3 INTs and the Cowboys D forgetting to play pass D, with no sacks and allowing 150 and 134 yards on 10 catches apiece to Mario Manningham and Steve Smith (the lesser).

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LA Stadium clears hurdle, but it's still not time
to panic

A few days ago, the group looking to build a NFL stadium in the city of Industry cleared it's biggest hurdle by settling with the nearby city of Walnut (source). With that in place, the frame work for the other pending lawsuits is set and it would seem all the legal issues are out of the way for a stadium in LA. The group is headed by Ed Roski, the same man responsible for privately building the Staples Center for the Lakers and who plans to privately fund the construction of the stadium in LA, so the excuse of "California is broke" won't matter in this case as tax payer money will be used minimally as most.

I'm sure we'll hear more about the "LA" Jaguars from the national pundits, but perception won't equal reality. This is for several reasons that I'll outline below. Think of this as LA debunking 101 when you hear your buddy at the office picking on you

1. The Lease

When the city of Jacksonville renovated then Alltel Stadium in preparation for Super Bowl XXXIX the Jaguars signed a 30 year extension to their current lease. As of right now, the Jaguars would have to show they lost money for three consecutive seasons in order to get out of paying almost $100 million to the city. This isn't the kind of playful language the Oklahoma City group used to usurp the Sonics to OKC, it spells out clearly what the Jaguars have to do to leave.

In addition, opening up their books would be a huge detriment to the NFL at large, as it would give the Players Union exactly the opprutunity they've been wanting. They could see the exact balance sheet of a NFL team as use it against the owners in negotiating.

On the other hand, the Chargers only have to pay $26 million to exit their lease with no questions asked after the 2011 season.

2. The Stadium

Jacksonville Muncipal Stadium may not be the shining jewel of the football world, but it is still an extremely funcitional stadium in good shape. Unless Jacksonville is hit by a Category 5 hurricane in the next few years, no event should cause the stadium to become substandard within the next decade.

Compared to the dome in St.Louis or San Diego's stadium, JMC is a palace. Almost all team's leave because of stadium issues, not ticket related ones.

San Diego in particular has been having issues and has met a massive amount of resistance trying to get a new stadium in the city. Currently, two suburbs are in discussions for what could be the last ditch attempt for the team to stay in the area. If a new stadium plan for the Chargers actually get's done, then we can start to worry.

That's it for now, more to come

-Jonathan Loesche

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Panthers Watch 2009: MNF Panthers-Cowboys Game
Thread

As most folks are aware, our San Francisco 49ers currently possess the Carolina Panthers 2010 first round draft pick.  Due to that these last couple weeks I've rolled out our Panthers Watch 2009.  We might as well keep track of how the Panthers are doing since a high first round pick would be most beneficial for the 49ers.

Prior to today, the posts have been Sunday night recaps of the Panthers games (game 1 and game 2).  Today, with the Panthers facing the Cowboys on Monday Night Football, we get a chance to view our Panthers in action.  A loss to the Cowboys will drop the Panthers to 0-3 heading into their bye week.  I certainly don't think they're going to go win-less, but given their struggles, they could be in serious trouble.  Speaking of which, next week, given the Panthers bye, I think I'll post a rather quick game-by-game breakdown of the rest of their schedule.  Also, for those wondering, thanks to SaDak9er for suggesting the Pink Panther Watch.  We're working on something more permanent, but I like this for now.

As for this game, the Cowboys are definitely not a world-beater at this point.  They'll be a bit short-handed tonight with Marion Barber inactive, meaning Felix Jones starts and Tashard Choice becomes the #2 back.  For the first time in a long time I find myself rooting for the Cowboys, but I honestly think an upset could happen.  The Cowboys are a 9 point favorite, but I just don't trust them.  But we can hope for the best right?  Or at least the best for the 49ers.  I mean it's not like the Panthers inspire any more confidence.

And if you get bored, there's always the Andy Lee Drinking Game for the monstrosity that is Jerry Jones' jumbotron.  Just substitute in the Panthers for Andy Lee.

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Marvin Lewis on injuries after game: "We have the
usual football soreness"

We saw several players leave the game due to injury Sunday. Leon Hall left for some time, but returned. Rey Maualuga was actually carted off. He had a sniff of Old Spice in the lockerroom and returned to the game. Because he's a man. Tank Johnson left early and didn't return. Fortunately, during Monday's press conference, Marvin Lewis said that the Bengals had "the usual football soreness".

"We’ll see how we are Wednesday. We’ve got some guys bumped and bruised. As I told you yesterday, Tank Johnson’s foot is going to be sore for a bit. Carson (Palmer) came out of the game a little bit sore. Rey Maualuga will be a little sore with the knee, and they’re going to do some further studies today. He seems to be OK. Chinedum (Ndukwe) has a little soreness in the leg. Leon (Hall) came back out, but a little sore. We have the usual football soreness. We’ll see how we are over the next 48 hours."

No word during Monday's press conference about a David Jones or Andre Smith update. Last week, Jones participated during practice on Thursday and Friday in a limited capacity and should be close. It would also seem likely that Smith won't return until after the bye week; after he recovers from injury, he'll still need time to work into the system.

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I Can't Help But Think I've Seen This Before

A hard-fought battle.

A Vikings' quarterback that had joined the team after years of playing with a hated enemy.

A little-used wide receiver making a huge catch to set up victory.

Am I talking about Brett Favre to Greg Lewis?  Nope.

Welcome to the lead-up to what might be the most highly anticipated regular season matchup between the Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers that either team has seen in the nearly 50 years that these teams have been getting together.  This week, we'll be taking a look back at some of the finer moments from this rivalry. . .and in light of what happened yesterday afternoon, I think I have a pretty good place to start.

The game actually took place the day of my 16th birthday, 26 September 1993.  It was Week 3 of the season, and both teams entered the game with a record of 1-1.  Brett Favre, in his third season in the NFL and his second as the Packers' starting quarterback, led his team into the Metrodome and saw a familiar face quarterbacking the team on the other sideline. . .the face of former Chicago Bears bad boy Jim McMahon.  McMahon was a few years removed from his glory days with the Bears and had played in Philadelphia for the three years prior to joining the Vikings, but many Viking fans had a bitter taste in their mouths over the signing of a man that had caused them so much grief over the years.

For the better part of the afternoon, the game was rather non-descript.  Favre opened the scoring with a 2-yard touchdown run, and then the game turned into a battle of field goals between Green Bay's Chris Jacke and Minnesota's Fuad Reveiz.  Reveiz connected from 35, 19, 29, and 51 yards, but Jacke countered with a 49-yarder in the second quarter, and near the end of the fourth quarter he was good on a 20-yard chip shot to give the Packers a 13-12 lead.  The Vikings drove furiously down the field in the waning seconds, and eventually found themselves faced with third and ten from midfield, no timeouts left, and 14 seconds left on the clock.  The book Cold Wars: 40+ Years of Packer-Viking Rivalry, sets the scene from there. . .

Anthony Carter lined up wide to the left side, Cris Carter was in the slot on the right, and little-known rookie Eric Guliford was on the far right.  The play was designed for Anthony Carter to run 10 yards downfield and then across the middle.  Cris Carter ran a 20-yard down-and-out pattern to the right, while the 5-foot-8 Guliford, seeing his first action of the season, went straight down the right sideline as an anticipated decoy.

Now, one of the defensive backs for the Green Bay Packers back in 1993 was a guy by the name of Terrell Buckley.  For those of you younger folks who may not have heard of Terrell Buckley, go to Wikipedia, type in "colossal bust," and skip past any Dolly Parton references you may find. . .there has to be a mention of Buckley there somewhere.  Now, legend has it that when the Vikings ran this exact play a few plays prior to this moment, Qadry Ismail was in the game instead of Guliford, and was waving his arms hoping to get McMahon to see him on a long pass.  Buckley apparently looked at Ismail and said, "What you got your arm up for?  He can't throw it that far."

Ismail relayed this message to McMahon back in the huddle.  After an incompletion put the Vikings in the third-and-ten situation above, Guliford came in for Ismail.  At the snap of the ball, McMahon rolled out to his right.  On the run, he launched what could generously be described as a complete duck downfield to. . .

Eric Guliford.

At the Green Bay 10-yard line.

Yep, the guy that "couldn't throw that far" somehow managed to wobble one to an unknown rookie that the Packers defense had become completely oblivious to. . .and it was Buckley that blew the coverage.  Guliford caught the pass at the Green Bay 10, and got down to the five-yard line before getting knocked out of bounds by safety Mike Prior with six seconds left on the clock.  Reveiz booted his fifth field goal of the day, a 22-yarder, and the Vikings escaped with an improbable 15-13 victory over the Packers.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, I bring you Eric Guliford's career receiving stats as a member of the Minnesota Vikings:

Games Played - 17 (over two seasons)
Receptions - 1
Receiving Yards - 45

Yes. . .that Jim McMahon duck was the only pass Eric Guliford caught in two years and seventeen games as a member of the Minnesota Vikings.  And it was enough to etch his name into Vikings/Packers lore.

Now, I think that Greg Lewis might have a little more than one catch in him. . .but for now, the parallels are pretty interesting.

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The Buffalo Bills lose CB/KR Leodis McKelvin

The Bills have lost Leodis McKelvin indefinately with a fractured bone in his lower leg.  He has 11 tackles and has defensed a pass in three games this season for the Bills.  He also has returned 5 kickoffs for 121 yards (24.2 avg) this season.  That means he’s one of the few players that require [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.billslocker.com/2009/09/28/the-buffalo-bills-lose-cbkr-leodis-mckelvin
/

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