2012 NFL NFC Wild Card Playoff Matchup: New Orleans Saints vs. Detroit Lions

New Orleans Saints vs. Detroit Lions 

Saturday. 8:00 p.m. ET, Mercedes-Benz Superdome

Airplanes and blimps won't be the only things flying all night in New Orleans! Drew Brees the captain of the offensive juggarnaut passed Dan Marino for the all time passing yards in a season with 5476 yards. Matthew Stafford was right on his heals connecting for 5038 yards. What do we take from this in our preview? The quarterback's are making all the noise in this preview to the match up in the NFC Wild Card game. These two quarterbacks combined for 10,514 yards of passing in 2011! Both surpassed the 5,000 mark only done 5 times in the history of the NFL. Maybe next year one of these quarterbacks may pass 6000 yards?

Advantage  - Saints

Brees

Stafford

Taking a look into the running game we see the versatility of the backs for the Saints in Darren Sproles and his ability to catch out of the backfield. In the 16 regular season games Sproles rushed for 603 yards on 87 carries, 86 catches for 710 yards receiving and with return yards of kicks at 1383 yards that is 2696 yards of total offensive threat. He is not alone in the back field of the Saints Chris Ivory has stepped up and the grinder Pierre Thomas combined had 936 yards to give the offense balance in the backfield.
The Lions battled through injury all year with the running game. When healthy the running backs produced just had to baby them along all year. The first blow was the loss of Jahvid Best there future for the season. So, they reached into the past and pulled Kevin Smith off the couch and found a solid performer until he got the injury bug. He is probable in this game if able to get 20 carries he could be a factor in keeping Brees of the field and giving space to Stafford to get the ball down field.

Advantage - Saints

K. Smith

Sproles

P. Thomas

Ivory

The receiving corps on both sides of the ball are dangerous. The Saints lead out with healthy a Marques Colston, a playoff receiver looking to add to his playoff stats. Lance Moore will be out for the game so Robert Meachem may get a few catches down field. He had 9 catches over 20+ yards and 6 touchdown passes in the regular season. Devery Henderson will also burn the secondary he had 6 catches over 20+ yards.
The Lions take pride in their elite receivers and none is better than All-pro Calvin Johnson. Calvin caught 96 passes for 1,681 yards and 16 touchdowns. So, keeping the double teams on Megatron might be the Saints best defensive option. When double teaming Calvin that opens up the other side of the field and Nate Burleson and Titus Young know how to pick up the slack.

Slight Advantage - Lions

C. Johnson

Colston

Meachem

Burleson

Henderson

Young

The two offenses would not be in the elite without the play of their tight ends The play of Jimmie Graham was legendary 99 receptions for 1320 yards receiving (2nd in NFL) with 11 touchdowns. All of the rceptions were not short passes out of the back field some of them were bombs that the 6'6", 260lb TE just took from the secondary all year. In their last meeting with the Lions on 12/4 he did not catch a touchdown pass, so watch for it.

The Lions had an early injury bug but that left and Stafford found Brandon Pettigrew as ann asset to keep the safeties honest. He did end the season with 777 yards receiving but his presence was more than that for the Lions offense.

Advantage - Saints

Graham

Pettigrew

Prediction Saints 45 - Lions 21

*Blowout Alert*

So fans lets stand up and cheer for your team to win!

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2012 NFL AFC Wild Card Playoff Matchup: Cincinnati Bengals at Houston Texans Preview

The Cincinnati Bengals vs. Houston Texans

Saturday. 4:30 p.m., Reliant Stadium

The NFL is in full pads and ready to play some playoff football! 

The quarterback play will most likely decide the game. Two young rookie and inexperienced gun-slingers will be looking to add their name to the list of rookie playoff winning quarterbacks. Both had seasons good enough to get them here but, will it be enough to keep them here? One will prevail to lead there team further to the AFC divisional playoffs and one will be sent packing for home. Andy Dalton the kid from Katy, Texas took his team to a (9-7) season with 3,398 passing yards will be going home to his home state to do it in front of family and friends. T.J Yates took over for the injured Matt Schaub in the last six games leading them to a (10-6) record. In the six games, Yates threw for just under 1,000 yards with 949 yards. Conservative passing yards from a team that loved to throw earlier in the season. Look for these two to have the fight and will to win.

Dalton

Yates

The running game is where it is at for both teams. The Texans with the 2nd leading team in the NFL with 153.5 yards per game will lead the way with the healthy Arian Foster. Arian rushed for the 1,224 and Ben Tate rushed for 942 a tandem that has been hard to stop all year. The Bengals 19th in the league in rushing at 111.1 yards per game struggled at times in the running game with Cedric Benson eclipsing the 1,000 yard mark with 1,067 and Bernard Scott had 380 making Benson a valuable commodity in this game.

Benson

Foster

Scott

Tate

 The defenses will need to keep an eye on the young talented receivers from both sides. They have the speed and the skills to run it to the house for a touchdown on any given play! Julio Jones has emerged lately in the absence of superstar wide out Andre Johnson, but had only 3 catches for 39 yards in their last meeting on December 11th a 20-19 loss to the Bengals. He must step up. On the other side of the ball wide receiver A.J Green put up a stellar 1,057 yards receiving in 2011 and solidified the number on slot. in his only shot at the Texans defense he caught 5 balls for 59 yards. Neither star had a touchdown against their playoff nemesis and what to make it happen.

Prediction Bengals 17 - Texans 21

So fans lets stand up and cheer for your team to win!

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Who will be the first 6000 yards single season passer in the NFL?

Drew Brees and Tom Brady passed Dan Marino for the all-time single season NFL passing yards. Dan Marino carried the mark of 5,084 yards since 1984 when he broke Dan Fouts's 4,802 set in 1981. The ever changing NFL is more pass oriented over the past couple years due to the offensive play calling, limited great running backs and defensive pass interfence calls . The corners and defensive back are struggling to find the right balance between the contact and no contact in the views of the officials.  

In the 2011 season 3 players passed the 5,000 mark Drew Brees (5,476), Tom Brady (5,235) and Matthew Stafford (5,038). With just 67 more passing yards Eli Manning (4,933) would have been the fourth.

Here is the list on the Top 10 all-time single season passing yard leaders. See if you can maybe determine the 2012 and beyond!

1. Drew Brees - 5,476

2. Tom Brady - 5,235

3. Dan Marino* - 5,084

4. Drew Brees - 5,069

5. Matthew Stafford - 5,038

6. Eli Manning - 4,933

7. Kurt Warner* - 4,830

8. Tom Brady - 4,806

9. Dan Fouts*- 4,802

10. Matt Schaub - 4,770

Drew Brees and Tom Brady are in the top 10 twice and seems to be the front runner in the chase to 6000 yards passing in a single season.

Dan Marino, Dan Fouts and Kurt Warner have all retired with much accolades in the game of football and the NFL.

The other young guns on the hunt with individual goals could add the 6000 yard mark is Matthew Stafford, Eli Manning and Matt Shaub.

All of these quarterback still playing in today's NFL have a shot at the 6000 yard goal if the defenses continue to get calls against them. These future hall of fame canidates will continue to sling the football down field to grab that 60, 70 or 80 yard pass play. What are the consequenses? A completed pass (plus), a pass interfence call (plus) or an occasional interception deep in your territory (Fail). I will take the odds everytime and so will these players.

The odds are even greater for the pocket passers who are protected by the roughing the passer call that they can with a good offensive line sit back and rip the secondary all day.

We as football fans want touchdowns! Who wants to see a one yard quarterback sneak? A long pass of 30 yards or more for a TD is like a homerun in baseball. Chicks dig the long ball not a sacrifice bunt.

I will be ready for the opening of the season next year to see if we will hit the mark.

 Will we see an emerging prospect next year?

Phillip Rivers, Aaron Rodgers or mabye Andrew Luck?

Let's all Cheer them on!

 

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Raheem Morris FIRED after 3 seasons at the helm of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

     A ten game losing streak by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was all it took for the Glazers to give him the boot and the rest of the coaching staff Monday morning. The last game of the year capped it off with a drubbing 45-24 loss to the Atlanta Falcons. The year started off great but a trip over the pond to London and the loss to the Chicago Bears they haven't won a game since. The fans expectations were high after the really young Bucs were 10-6 last year just missing the playoffs. Looking into the new season playoff bound was all in the minds of the pewter and orange. All they were able to pull out was a 4-12 season with the last 5 games seeming to get worse as the year went on.
     A coach that had a young talented quarterback in Josh Freeman faltered all year. Staying on his feet was tough when defenses were living in the pocket as much as the quarterback was all game. He threw 22 interceptions to just six last season. The passing offense never seem to be in sync and execute the plays to win. The appointed leading receiver Mike Williams was no where to be found 90% of the year. The injuries and miss use of LeGarrette Blount made the rest of the offense under achievers. Could that have been coaching or were the players too young to handle the offense?

     It seemed as the team was repeatedly unprepared for the games and players not giving their 100% on the field. Coaching is about get the best out of their players. In the eyes of the Glazers it seemed to them the players needed another leader, coach and motivator to lead them back to the Super Bowl.

     Good luck Raheem Morris on your next adventure!

Buccaneer fans keep cheering! You have a young talented team that with the right things in place will be competetive again soon!