NFL Week 4

[Neil]

Ouch.  It's rather disconcerting to look down and see that your knee is in the wrong place.

[CountDeMoney]

If there's any consolation to be taken today, it's the Other Media Darling Team O' The Week, the Jets, took a loss today.  Boo fucking hoo.

[Valmy]

I would like to take this opportunity to salute the mighty Washington Redskins for their glorious second half rally against the awesome juggernaut that is the Tampa Bay defense.  They also only had one of their two PATs blocked!

[Neil]

If there's any consolation to be taken today, it's the Other Media Darling Team O' The Week, the Jets, took a loss today.  Boo fucking hoo.

You know, I like the Jets and want the best for them, but the media frenzy deserved to have them taken down a peg.

[CountDeMoney]

Interesting.  Godboy Dungy said T-Sizzle's grazing of Brady's knee was a bad call.   Imagine that.

[Neil]

Interesting.  Godboy Dungy said T-Sizzle's grazing of Brady's knee was a bad call.   Imagine that.

I wonder if the league will fine NBC?

[Strix]

Where are the Steeler haters?

*listens to the crickets chirping*

And with Detroit and Cleveland on the way a 4-2 start isn't that bad a thing.   

[Neil]

Where are the Steeler haters?

Everybody hates the Steelers, except for the bandwagon folks.  Therefore, they are everywhere.

[CountDeMoney]

Where are the Steeler haters?

*listens to the crickets chirping*

It's about time the real Steelers showed up for this season.

[Neil]

Where are the Steeler haters?

*listens to the crickets chirping*

It's about time the real Steelers showed up for this season.

Well, I was impressed by their victory over the Titans.  Until I realized that the Titans are terrible and utterly without merit.

[CountDeMoney]

Talk may not be cheap for Ravens' Lewis
Facing possible fines, linebacker seems ready to put his money where his mouth is

9:33 PM EDT, October 4, 2009
FOXBOROUGH, Mass.

There is a certain etiquette that usually prevails in the NFL post-game environment, where one of the first rules is to avoid any criticism of the officiating no matter how egregious and arbitrary it might have seemed.

The price for breaking that rule can be pretty high. The league doesn't take kindly to anything that might cast doubt upon the integrity of the game and its officials, and is quick to levy stiff fines on players and coaches who vent about the questionable calls that might or might not have cost them a game.

Apparently, Ray Lewis can afford to express his opinion, because it didn't take him long to warm up his checkbook Sunday.

"It's embarrassing," he said.

"Amen," said one of his teammates, who just happened to be walking by at the time.

Lewis was referring to the pair of roughing calls that helped New England quarterback Tom Brady drive for two first-half touchdowns in the Patriots' 27-21 victory at Gillette Stadium. The NFL seems to increase the emphasis on protecting the quarterback every season, but after Terrell Suggs was called for brushing past Brady's legs in the second quarter -- a penalty that kept the Patriots out of a third-and-long situation -- the Ravens' defensive leader could not hold his tongue any longer.

"They [the quarterbacks] even know it," Lewis said. "'If you get close to me, I can look for a penalty.' Did that win or lose the game? No, but it damned sure helped them score 14 points."

Clearly, Lewis had an agenda. This wasn't some spontaneous outburst. It almost seemed as if he met after the game with his defensive teammates and formulated an official response to both the events of the afternoon in Foxborough and the NFL's evolving quarterback protection policy.

He was the spokesman, but you could tell by the comments of Suggs and some of the other defensive players that Lewis definitely was speaking for the group when he complained that the protective pendulum has swung too far in favor of the league's top quarterbacks -- and particularly the highly popular Brady.

"Maybe next year it'll be two-hand touch to get a sack," Suggs said during the post-game news conference.

It wasn't the first time Suggs took a costly flag for a glancing blow. He got called for a game-altering head shot during last season's game against Tennessee, even though he was swatting at the ball and his hand barely glanced off the helmet of Titans quarterback Kerry Collins.

"People work too hard for that," Lewis said, "and the embarrassing part about it is you see it constantly, constantly every week. ... Every man puts his pants on the same way. I've got kids just like Brady has kids. Everybody has kids. Treat it with some respect.

"It's embarrassing to even keep the momentum going like that when we go three and out and then we stop them and then you look back and see a flag for a personal foul and Tom Brady is laughing. It wasn't no personal foul if he's still smiling."

To be fair, an earlier call on Haloti Ngata was legit. He clubbed Brady in the head at the end of a rush and got rung up for the first costly personal foul. And the Patriots were called once for roughing Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco.

Still, Lewis kept coming back to that same word -- "embarrassing." I wouldn't be surprised if he puts that on the memo line of the check he writes out to pay for his opinion.

"This ain't touch football," added safety Ed Reed, who stopped to listen to Lewis' diatribe. "This ain't tag."

There were also a number of questionable calls and unfavorable ball spots over the course of the game. The Ravens got called for offensive pass interference when Derrick Mason faked inside and made contact with a defender before turning out for a big catch.

When a Patriots receiver pulled almost the identical move on Ravens cornerback Chris Carr earlier in the third quarter, Carr was called for illegal contact.

It was that call that got coach John Harbaugh a 15-yard unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty for barking at the officials from the sideline.

Harbaugh kept his post-game opinion to himself, citing the league rules against publicly questioning the officials. Lewis apparently had a few thousand dollars burning a hole in his pocket.

"I just look at it as a great game with two great teams going at it out there," Lewis said. "Let the players go out there and decide the game."

[CountDeMoney]

Well, I was impressed by their victory over the Titans.  Until I realized that the Titans are terrible and utterly without merit.

The Steelheads just gave up the most punk TD in the history of punk TDs.  I LOL'd.

[Alcibiades]

SD really coming back...

[CountDeMoney]

Doubtful, not enough time.

[Alcibiades]

IF their defense could have done anything. ( That's my fantasy football defense. )