Sportsfrog.com

Revenge. Dished cold and all that. The talking heads are on that and other things this morning. To the chatter:

—Don Banks, leading it off as usual, with Snap Judgements and this on the Cowboys’ day:

Believe it or not, the Cowboys’ 38-17 home-field destruction of Seattle on Sunday sets up next week’s NFC East first-place showdown at Philadelphia, with 5-2 Dallas testing its new-found mojo against the 5-2 Eagles. To the winner goes the undisputed grasp of the division’s top spot at the season’s mid-point, no matter what the floundering Giants (5-3) do next week at home against San Diego. Honestly now, a month or so ago, with the Cowboys 2-2 and in a bit of disarray coming off that humbling loss at Denver, did any of us see a first-place battle in the Cowboys’ not-too-distant future? Yes, I see that hand, and you can put it down now, Mr. Jones.

To be sure, the Cowboys didn’t play their best game in trouncing the fading Seahawks (2-5). They left some points on the field, and gave up a good chunk of yardage defensively (Seattle had 308 total yards). But you can also see a team that’s starting to believe in itself, and the Tony Romo-led passing game is finally humming at early 2007 (or better) levels. Dallas scored five touchdowns, and four came from the previously maligned receiving corps: Sam Hurd, Roy Williams, Miles Austin and Patrick Crayton. True, Crayton’s score came on an 82-yard punt return, sealing the deal in the third quarter, but the important point is that the Cowboys’ playmakers are taking turns making plays. And that’s when an offense starts to take off. Romo finished 21 of 36 for 256 yards, and three scores, but the best part of his day was completing passes to 10 receivers, with none having more than Austin’s team-leading five receptions for 61 yards. Gone are those bad old days of the T.O. era, when Romo looked tortured if he didn’t get the ball to No. 81 early and often. Romo is now content to find the open man, no matter who it is, and keep moving the chains. He has gone three consecutive games without an interception, the first such streak of his career.

Yes, that’s a nice run. But let’s be somewhat real here, it’s not December yet, and Romo is in the middle of his November comfort zone. The questions with Romo and Dallas will not be answered this month. Still, wins are wins, and the flaws with New York visible for all to see, no reason why Dallas cannot figure it has as good a shot for the NFC East as the Giants or Eagles.

—Clark Judge at sportsline.com with Judgements and this note amongst others:

Don’t tell me Eli Manning’s sore foot isn’t affecting his passing. He looks like a different quarterback, and while he insists the plantar fasciitis isn’t interfering with his play (“It feels great”) he seems to have trouble stepping into his throws. Manning doesn’t agree, and that’s OK. I wouldn’t expect him to. But his coach at least admits it’s possible. “I’ve seen that a couple of times on the practice field,” Tom Coughlin said. All I know is the guy who was bulletproof the first five weeks has gone in the jar the last three — completing 49.6 percent of his passes, with six interceptions and no passer rating above 61.0. In his first five starts, he hit on 64.4 percent of his passes, with two interceptions and four passer ratings of 104.1 or better — including one perfect score of 158.3. Something is wrong, and Eli needs to get it fixed.

Ah yes. The foot. Had forgotten about that. Week one of the foot injury was the beatdown of the Raiders. The following weeks of the foot injury were against NFL varsity teams. And that’s when the issues have been. So, foot? Or playing varsity defenses? And IF it is the foot, well, what up, Tom Coughlin? Didn’t the Giants used to have a running game? What of Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw? If you quarterback is playing dinged, can’t you protect him and control the game by running? Issues all over the place for the Giants. They owe a debt of thanks to the Yankees this morning for distracting the local populace a little with some goodness…

—John Clayton at espn.com with Last Call and this note:

Ravens solve Broncos: The Ravens were the first team to unravel the mystery of the Denver Broncos, who had their six-game winning streak snapped in a 30-7 blowout in Baltimore. In many ways, the Ravens’ defense had a perfect game plan. Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton doesn’t throw the ball long. Entering the game, he had only 16 passes that went longer than 21 yards in six games. The Ravens kept one safety deep in coverage and designed their pass defense to keep Denver’s receivers in front of it. “We blitzed a lot more with a safety playing high,” Ravens cornerback Domonique Foxworth said. “It puts pressure on the secondary but it also put pressure on the quarterback. The way to beat that is screen and hitches, but we did a good job of coming to the ball.” Ravens middle linebacker Ray Lewis said the key was keeping receivers Brandon Marshall and Eddie Royal in front of the defensive backs and rushing three and four defenders to stop them. It worked. Orton passed for only 152 yards; according to ESPN Stats & Information, Orton completed only 4 of 10 passes for 17 yards when the Ravens brought extra pressure. On offense, the Ravens negated the ability of Denver’s defense to make second-half adjustments by coming out in a no-huddle and working at a tempo that wore down defenders. Joe Flacco completed his last 14 passes for 159 yards.

Yeah, nice gameplan from Baltimore, although I think this one boils down to something simpler. Baltimore needed this one desperately to avoid falling to 3-4 and kissing the division goodbye, while Denver at 6-0 and three plus games clear for San Diego, didn’t need it so much. Desperate good teams will be beat non-desperate good teams more often than not. As for Baltimore’s defense being “back” as I am sure I will here a lot of this week in locally here in Baltimore, we’ll see. In their next four weeks they have a return engagement with Carson Palmer, as well as games against Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers on the slate. Those quarterbacks will get the ball downfield more than Cutler did yesterday.

—Bucky Brooks at nfl.com with capsule looks of the week and this note:

The Panthers’ success on the ground against the Cardinals, who entered as the league’s top-ranked rush defense, was a surprise when considering how Jake Delhomme had struggled. With that in mind, the Panthers faced steady diet of eight-man fronts designed to stop DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart early on. However, the tactic failed miserably as Carolina rushed for 270 yards on 44 attempts and dominated the game. The key to the success was the use of a slot formation against Arizona’s eight-man front. By placing both receivers on the same side of the formation, the Panthers were able to draw a defender outside of the box on the two-receiver side due to the threat of a pass to Steve Smith. With fewer defenders able to commit to stopping the run, Stewart and Williams found soft spots when running to the tight end side.

What the hell, Arizona? Just as I was buying into the “new” Cardinals, you unleash that? It’s one thing to lose to Carolina, it’s another to do it while letting the Panthers run all over your previously number one against the defense run defense. I will chalk this up to “overlooked them” after the big win against the Giants, but, yuck. You can thank the football deity you hang out in the execrable NFC West for allowing you to get away with crap performances like that.

As for my thoughts, trademarked ntyc, here they be:

—I feel bad for Packers fans this morning. This whole thing came about because of their front office’s stubborness, really. But it had to be a craptacular feeling watching Favre return and throw four touchdowns for the Vikings. If Favre stays healthy (a big if), still no reason to see Minnesota as anything other than a Super Bowl contender in the NFC.

—Browns fans owe Buffalo a note of gratitude. I am still not certain how Buffalo lost that game to them a few weeks back, but it may be what keeps Cleveland from 0-16. And that’s including me acknowledging the games Cleveland has left with Kansas City, Detroit, and Oakland. Of all the lost franchises in the NFL right now, Cleveland may be the most puzzling. They have had a boatload of high draft picks over the years, and have hit on so very few of them. Organizational failure from the top down. And, while we’re here, the insistence on continuing to start Derek Anderson? Now it’s weird. It made sense to give him a look a few weeks back, but he’s been historically awful since. Unless he’s playing the Bengals (who he for some reason just loves lining up against), he should be in the locker room. They need to go back to Brady Quinn, if only to make certain they should be drafting a qb next April early.

—Big “quiet” win for Houston yesterday in Buffalo, in exactly the kind of game they usually lose. On the road, against a team they should beat in November, has in previous years been a recipe for failure. Perhaps Gary Kubiak is finally pushing the right buttons for that team. His benching of Steve Slaton after a Slaton fumble was bold, and Ryan Moats ran like his hair was on fire when given a chance in Slaton’s stead. At 5-3, they are going to be Wild Card relevant late into the season. 10 wins remains a possibility for them, and they own an important head to head tie-breaker over Cincinnati.

—So the Titans re-discover Chris Johnson and get a win? I have always thought Jeff Fisher an outstanding coach, but his misplacing Johnson after week two this year was as big a reason the Titans were 0-6 before yesterday’s win as anything else. If he will keep feeding Johnson, Tennessee will win several more games this year, even with Vince Young being the one handing the ball off.

—The Lions, still the cure for what ails teams, non-Washington division. The Rams, playing to avoid 0-16, frankly, did what they had to do, which was ride Steven Jackson to a win. At the least, now St. Louis can play without worrying about the history books. As for Detroit, they would probably like to get everyone healthy and o the field at some point this year. Finally got Matt Stafford back, and still can’t put Calvin Johnson with him.

—The Chargers are still only Wild Card relevant at this point, and I am having a hard time buying them for that, when they continue to struggle with teams like the Raiders. Eight point wins at home over Oakland are puzzling for a team with San Diego’s talent.

—As for tonight’s game, Atlanta needs this one fairly badly, as a loss would give them three and put them into the Wild Card scrum with Chicao, Green Bay, and most of the NFC East. They may be desperate, but New Orleans is simply better. Saints 31 Falcons 24.