NFL Week 2 running thread ...

A bit fragile Mr. Owens is

 

1996 -- 16 games
1997 -- 16 games
1998 -- 16 games
1999 -- 14 games
2000 -- 14 games
2001 -- 16 games
2002 -- 14 games
2003 -- 15 games
2004 -- 14 games
2005 -- 7 games


Here's a question I had while watching the Eagles and Giants yesterday: Is it just me or does Eli Manning play better in the fourth quarter than at any other part of the game. It seems like he plays fairly average for three quarters and then goes off in the fourth (I remember him doing this a few times last year as well). Any truth to this?

 

To answer my own question, Eli did perform best in the fourth quarter last season. He had a QB rating of 85.7 in the fourth quarter, 56.8 in the third, 80.0 in the second and 82.3 in the first.

Peyton, by comparison, is significantly worse (though he has a much larger sample) in the fourth quarter. 105.2 in the first, 91.0 in the second, 96.6 in the third and 84.5 in the fourth.

Doesn't mean a whole lot, I suppose (especially since Peyton's worst quarter is almost as good as Eli's best), but I thought it was interesting.

 

THE FOLD STANDARD By LES BOWEN

TRENT COLE KNELT on one knee, his broad shoulders pressed down by the weight of one of the most devastating losses in the history of a franchise that has seen a few of those.

Around Cole, crowds of people swirled. There were New York Giants, celebrating Plaxico Burress' 31-yard touchdown reception that gave their team a 30-24 overtime victory at Lincoln Financial Field, and there were people filming the celebrating Giants, along with coaches and trainers and ballboys and all the other folks who mill about on football fields after the final whistle.

They all navigated carefully around the Eagles' second-year defensive end, hunched like a partially submerged rock in the flowing river of celebration.

It was hard to get up, Cole said later, hard to rise and make that long walk to the locker room, after the Eagles blew a 24-7 fourth-quarter lead in a flurry of poor pass coverage, inept playcalling, strange penalties, and balls that bounced off numbed fingers.

The strange-penalties part was where Cole came in. Like most of his defensive linemates, he'd played a dominant, stirring game, netting two of the amazing eight sacks the Birds managed against Eli Manning. But late in the fourth quarter, as the Giants drove for a game-tying field goal that should never have been a possibility, Cole was flagged for a personal foul after a completed pass from Manning to Jeremy Shockey. The penalty, for reaching up from the ground and planting a foot in Giants offensive tackle Kareem McKenzie's crotch, took the ball from the Eagles' 32 to their 17 with 10 seconds left in regulation. New York's Jay Feely boomed a 35-yard field goal that tied the score on the next play.

"It was very hard," Cole said. "It was unreal. I just couldn't believe it. That flag on me was a factor [in] the game... I took that very hard. That's why I knelt down like that... we could have won that game."

Could have won it? That's a whopping understatement, one you can write off to the faraway glaze in Cole's eyes and the breathless, broken-glass scrape of his voice. He was too stunned to be entirely lucid.

Cole's senseless penalty epitomized the Eagles' self-destruction, but there was so much more to this collapse than a stray cleat swung at an inopportune moment. Coach Andy Reid and running back Brian Westbrook attempted to take responsibility for the loss, and each bore a steaming, stinking portion of the blame, for sure. It was truly a team effort. There is no "I" in "catastrophe."

"After the first half, I didn't think in a million years those guys would come back and beat us," middle linebacker Jeremiah Trotter said. "We have to learn from the situation. I wish I could tell you [what happened]... when we get a team down, we need to put our foot on their throat. I don't know what happened."

At least three Eagles made "foot-on-the-throat" references, after they played the fourth quarter and the overtime like they had feet in their throats.

 

The Falcons have beaten two 0-2 teams in-division, too. Just because it's not the best opponent doesn't mean it can't be impressive.

 

Eagles fans won't like this, Javon Kearse is done for the season with a knee injury.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2593088

 

Tony Kornhesier is sweating like a pig in the Jacksonville humidity as he does PTI. The red sportscoast that makes him look like a Marriott desk manager doesn't help.

In the meantime, Wilbon has nary a drop of perspiration on him.

 

I admit I never understood the QB ratings, but can it be explained by Indy being up big by the 4th & running out the clock?

 

Rothliesberger passes on first two plays, two first downs....then stalls. But he looks sharp.

 

See, the thing is, they have to catch Vick, first. Atlanta could implode the rest of the season and finish 2-14 ... but through two weeks, that 'new' offense looks great.

 

Oz, my good man: The Falcons have beaten a team many picked to win the Super Bowl (Carolina) and a team some/many picked to reach the playoffs (Tampa Bay). And it should be noted both teams were in the playoffs last year.

Surely you aren't comparing wins over Carolina/Tampa to wins over also-rans - this year and last - Detroit and Green Bay?