Sunday Dec 4th

[backrow]

Offense

Chris Cooley, TE/H-Back Redskins: 5-58 and a TD, longest catch - 19 yards

Zach Hilton, TE Saints: 4 catches for 50 yards, second on Saints

Drew Bennett, WR Titans: 6 catches but only 37 yards... he got some end zone looks from McNair but ball failed to reach him...

Jeb Putzier, TE Broncos: 4 catches for 50 yards with the longest one of 32


Defense

Brian Urlacher, LB Bears: game leading 12(!) tackles, Hunter Hillenmeyer added 4 solo tackles as well

Colby Buckwoldt, LB Saints: 5 tackles, 3 solo

Keith Brooking, LB Falcons: game leading 7 solo tackles

Nick Greisen, OLB Giants: 6 tackles plus 2 defended passes

Matt Wilhelm, LB Chargers: 7 tackles and a sack - pretty much all in 4th quarter! he's a very talented LB with great size and good speed... he finished second in tackles on Chargers

Scott Fujita, OLB Cowboys: 6 solo tackles, Scott Shanle had another 4 for Dallas

Ben Taylor, MLB Browns: game leading 10 tackles

Brian Russell, FS Browns: 4 tackles and an INT

David Pollack, LB Bengals: 2 tackles and a sack

Ross Kolodziej, DT Cardinals: 4 tackles and a sack

Derek Smith, LB 49ers: game leading 10 tackles

Stuart Schweigert, FS Raiders: 7 tackles, 1 deflected pass

Brandon Chillar, LB Rams: 5 solo tackles

John Lynch, FS Broncos: 4 solo tackles, pass defended

Mike Vrabel, OLB Patriots: 4 tackles and recovered fumble

Lofa Tatupu, MLB Seahawks: another stellar game for rookie LB with 8 tackles, forced fumble, interception returned for a TD and a deflection to his teammate for another INT return... great young player


Why don't i get the ball?

that's new category for all those very good players that get scrappy second looks or... not even that

Mike Alstott, no touches, 1 ball thrown his way (although Bucs did not enter Saints 5 to be fair, and that's A-Train's teritory - that's what he's been reduced to, but his 6 TDS so far prove that he's more than capable)

Dallas Clark and Brandon Stokley, Colts: Clark had 2 catches for 37 yards and Stokley had one pass thrown his way... even TE Fletcher had more chances...

Matt Jones, WR Jaguars: 1 carry for 3 yards... npo passes caught... and we thought it was hard for him to display his talent with Leftwich around... i never thought i will say that but Leftwich come back!

Brian Finneran, WR Falcons: more of the same for Brian, only 4 passes thrown his way for 31 yards total

Brad Hoover, FB Panthers: he actually got more than his usual share of the rock with three passes for 20 yards and one 2 yard carry... still a guy that talented needs more than that!

Ricky Proehl, WR Panthers, 1 catch for 6 yards, but he did habe another big one (46 yards) taken back for stupid penalty

Jason Witten, TE Cowboys: 1 catch for 5 yards in first quarter... Bledsoe didn't have a good day...

Heath Miller, TE Steelers, 3 for 44 and i bet that had Big Ben looked his way more they would have won, Miller had a mismatch vs Bengals

Jeremy Shockey, TE Giants: 2 for 20... he ain't gonna get 1000 yards like that... at least Jim Finn, former mr. irrelevant had 2 catches for 20 yards for Giants... all in all bad day for Eli, great day for Giants D

Todd Heap. TE Ravens, 3 for 51... he us by far the best player on that offense so why the hell Boller only throws to him thrice???

Wes Welker, WR Dolphins: 4 for 40... he is easily their second best receiver... he should have more looks in this offense...

Doug Jolley, TE Jets: 2 for 26...

Kevin Curtis, WR Rams, 2 catches for 6 yards... no comment here...

Heath Evans, FB Patriots... with the return of Dillon and Faulk he was deemed to be fit for his typical fullback only role and didn't even dress for the game... even Mike Cloud got some balls, but nothing at all for Heath (or Patrick Pass...) - both were inactive... so was Dan Klecko talented DL also used as FB at times...

Joe Jurevicius, WR Seahawks: after recording 137 yards and 2 TDs to win the game for Seattle, he saw the gratitude in form of two uncatchavle passes thrown his way... big thanks Matt...
Edited by: backrow

 

[white lightning]

I have to admit,I'm starting to wonder more and more about the effects of the Caste System.First off,Stokley might as well sit on the bench as bad as he has been ignored this season.There is no explantion out there that I will believe as to why he will be lucky to have half of the yards that he did last season.He is healthy but doesn't get but around 10% of the opportunitys to catch the ball!

Then in Jacksonville,you have Matt Jones who must be D.Garrards worst enemy.You can just tell that he doesn't like the guy.He won't even consider throwing to him unless it's his last resort.I find it quite ironic that Jones is on a team with 3 black quarterbacks.It might just be the end to his career because some how the will blame him for his lack of production.What a joke!

Drew Bennett just needs Volek back.McNair is horrible.Look at the Titans record and how bad they get beat week after week.Wake up Titans.Anything to hold whitey down.This really sucks.

 

[Spooge]

I said it before and I will say it again, It aint good to be "Friends"
with Peyton! If thats how he displays his loyalty then
Stokely ought to hang with someone else. I want Manning to win it
all but I hate the way he panders to the brothers. And please
don't tell me its a coaching thing, cause anyone with the talent and
juice as Manning can choose to whom he throws too.

 

[jaxvid]

Yeah, we've beaten this horse to death on another thread but I will add that it seems to be a bad deal for Stokely right now. We all cheered last year when he agreed to a five-year contract extension (see thread here) But if someone doesn't move on he is in for a loooong five years.

 

[Earl_Cerberus]

It is good to get these sorts of updates! Thanks for compiling all that information. I have been browsing the website for the last few weeks and finally got around to getting a username so this is my first post.

 

[backrow]

that was not a very good day for most of the players i follow... i really wish that the last category gets way shorter next week and by next season i hope that will take me 4 hrs to compile all that due to massive influx of good rookies (plus guys like Fox, P.J. Fleck, Jordan Beck getting back on their feet after being on IR) and promising second year players getting more PT

 

[Kaptain]

I think the predictable worst case scenario has happened this year. This should have been a banner year for white wide recievers. Instead Matt Jones gets drafted by a team with three black quarterbacks and a caste system coach who has put together one of the blackest teams in the NFL and is in no hurry to use Jone's immense talent.

Marcus Pollard left the Colts seemingly opening a position up for another talented white reciever, Dallas Clark. Instead the Colts improved defense allows the offense to get conservative and Dallas Clark ends up splitting time with Stokely (though they play different positions)???.

The incredibly fast Kevin Curtis finally gets a chance to start due to injuries to Holt and the aging Bruce. He made good nearly every week he was allowed to start, but returned to his "rightful" white role of #3 reciever as soon as the others returned.

Joe Jurevicius, who was nearly cut, got the same opportunity as Curtis due to injury and has also made good, but he can expect to also return to bench as soon as the brothers return from injury. We may see tonight.

Brian Finneran has easily been the Falcons best wide reciever the past few years even though Atlanta makes him work his way up the depth chart every year. Even so, no WR can put up big numbers with Ron Mexico throwing the ball.

With more black QB's coming, more black coaches, and more white coaches acting black, is their any hope at all for white wide recievers?

 

[bigunreal]

Really, it's very simple. Take away the teams they play for, and tell
me that Brandon Stokely, Kevin Curtis and Drew Bennett, at least,
aren't #1 WR talents. The reality is, Stokely is a #3 who almost never
plays now, Curtis has gone back to the white "slot" (#3) position, and
Bennett is supposedly #1 on the Titans, but is all but ignored by his
black QB in favor of three slow, mediocre black TEs. Matt Jones is one
of the most exceptional talents to enter the NFL in its history.
Despite being incredibly productive with a minimum of opportunities, he
remains mired in that white #3 role, behind the ancient
Jimmy Smith and a much slower and smaller receiver (Wilford) , who
doesn't have his pigmentation disorder. Finneran is clearly the best WR
on his team, but has now been demoted to the white "slot" (#3)
position, behind two underachieving players who aren't cursed with his
pigementation disorder. Wes Welker is at least good enough to be the #2
WR on the Dolphins, if not the #1, yet once again he seems to be a
perfect Caste System fit at that "slot" position. Jurevicious should
have established himself as the #! WR on the Seahawks by now, but will
almost certainly be relegated to that back-of-the-bus "slot" position
behind hands-of-stone Darrell Jackson and the incredibly slow and
unproductive Bobby Engram. As for Dallas Clark, he has as much talent,
if not more, than any TE in the NFL, but now sees fewer looks than a
ridiculous waiver castoff from the Bears, who doesn't share his
pigmentation disorder. Last season left us so hopeful, but now we see
just how powerful the Caste System is.

 

[slwerner]

Speaking of "John Lynch, FS Broncos:...", not listed here,
but very critical to the outcome of the game against the Chiefs, was a
terrible personal foul call against Lynch. Even the reciever who
he decked indicated that it was a good hit.



For those who didn't see it, Lynch was closing in on the attempted
catch, the reciever dropped the ball, but Lynch had already "committed"
to making a play on the ball. Even Chiefs fans will have to
acknowledge that the replay clearly shows Lynch's hands swiping
down at the recievers. A collision ensued, and Lynch, a big strong
hitter, dumped the wouldbe reciever on his back. It's quite
normal for Lynch to get the better in head-on collisions.



But wait! Their helmets touched - personal foul on Lynch (and
another fine, undoubtedly). I bring this up not to complain about
the outcome of the game, but about the discrimination against Lynch - a
white man playing defensive back.



I've really only noticed this since he joined the Broncos, but Lynch
get more "questionable" calls against him for personal fouls than
anyone else I've noticed. Collisions (big ones) happen all the
time between recievers and BD's, but it seems that when Lynch makes a
big hit, he gets flagged for it. It's almost always not because
the hit was "dirty" but rather that helmets touched. And, we're
not talking "top-of-the-helmet" spearing, we're talking incidental
helmet to helmet touches, such as happen on vertually every running
play. (I'm sure there are a few forum members who can back up what I'm
stating here).



For a time I believed this was just refs erroring on the side of
caution to protect players. But, since I've started to read
Castefootball, I've come to believe that it is really a matter of the
league "punishing" Lynch for "playing out of positition".
Obviously, as a Bronce fan, I'm somewhat biased, however, I'm wondering
if others would agree with me? Maybe someone who is a fan of a
team who's player he was flagged for hitting would comment on if they
truely believe Lynch committed a foul - free from any discussion
of a games outcome (since fans can find a way to "agree" with obviously
bad calls when the game is on the line).



Just wondering if I'm alone in thinking this.



slwerner

 

[backrow]

yeah i saw that game as well, and that penalty on John Lynch was ridiculous... that was no way he could have stopped that hit on time as he was less than a sec off and receiver looked like he had the ball...

and hey welcome to the boards!

PS Lynch is one of precious few starting white DBs right now... (i can think of three of the top of my head: Lynch, Schweigert and Kaesviharn)

 

[Colonel_Reb]

This same thing happened the last few years at Arkansas, with Tony Bua and Jeb Huckeba. Because they were white agressive defensive players, they were penalized for doing nothing more than most of their black counterparts were getting away with. It was very aparent why the calls were being made. A white guy just can't hit a black guy hard without getting penalized more often.

 

[jaxvid]

Also since penalties against DB's are so common anyways it is really easy for the ref's to flag the white guys because, what the heck, they call all kinds of cheap PI's and nobody complains. The ref's know there will be little flak for a bad call on a white guy against a black guy so they call it all the time. I bet on this play they were going to call pass interference then saw that was not possible to do and instead changed it to that phony head to head penalty. Head to head? WTF? It's football for cryin' out loud!

 

[Kaptain]

I saw that hit and it was not only clean, but very sportsmanly. Replay after replay showed Lynch actually pulling up at the last minute and padding the brunt of the blow by pushing with his forearms. His helmet never went down in an attempt to spear. The players' facemasks tapped each other - that's all. He even helped the reciever up after the play and the reciever nodded his head and slapped Lynch on his helmet to acknowledge the good play of Lynch. The announcers keep repeating how it was a good call, when clearly it was not.

 

[slwerner]

As a follow-up to my first post regarding John Lynch being singled out
for personal fouls calls becuase he's white, I've been trying to find
some statistics on or listing of fines levied on players for
hits. NFL.com has nothing. Most searches turn up stories
about fines levied for "Endzone antics" and off-field bad
behaviors.



Personally, I can recall several instance over the past few years when
Lynch has been fined for hits (I can't recall any of them being truely
dirty hits). However, I'm not sure if other DB's (regardless of
race) are hit with fines from the league.



Maybe I'm just becoming paraniod, but I'm getting the idea that the
league is trying to issue a "get out" message to Lynch because
his "old school" style of play (anyone remember
Fencik & Planck) suits strong White men to well at the safety
position.



Does anyone have empirical data to either suport or refute this?



slwerner

 

[jaxvid]

Does anyone have empirical data to either suport or refute this?

That information is nearly impossible to find on the internet. As someone who spends a lot of time researching such things I have found there is only two ways to get that kind of information.

1) be a member of the media, in other words have an approved media pass (the kind of thing that gets you into games) and go directly to the NFL OR the players union and ask for it in the course of writing an article. That MAY get you the information. The league and the union have lots of reasons for hiding that information and also it is a legitimate issue of privacy for the players.

2) find an article written by the above type of person that has the relevant data you are looking for which is really just a matter of luck.

You may also find such data in a university or organization report as they are given some information that the press is not.

 

[Bart]

Maybe I'm just becoming paraniod, but I'm getting the idea that the league is trying to issue a "get out" message to Lynch because his "old school" style of play (anyone remember Fencik & Planck) suits strong White men to well at the safety position.

A strong, hard hitting safety will inevitably get a few helmet to helmet or seemingly cheap shots called but it does seem to me that a John Lynch or Chuck Cecil have been singled out.

 

[Colonel Callan]

I've been out of the loop for a couple of weeks, but a quick look at the
board and seeing this has me taking a moment to post.

The same thoughts and questions have been running through my head
regarding whites being singled out for putting the hit on blacks! I thought
the call on Lynch was bogus - and I seriously wondered out loud to those
around me if Lynch had been black would the foul have been called - and
you should have seen the looks from a few people, not a few of them
finally nodding their heads in agreement. It reminds me of Chuck Cecil
being called "... too vicious for the NFL," by Sports Illustrated. Had he
been black, we'd never have heard the end of stories regarding his hard
hits, his power, his guts, blah blah blah. Look at all the press the
overrated (and fragile) Ronnie Lott used to get.

 

[backrow]

all in all terrible and dissapointing week for us hopefully it will only get better after this point...

 

[Hoosier_ Pride]

I think you guys are forgetting about Rodney Harrison and Steve
Atwater before him. The NFL has a long history of nailing hard hitting
safeties right in their wallet. I think that Lynch is a marked
man, but not more marked than Rodney Harrison, Atwater, Darius,
Kennedy etc... If you google NFL safety fined for hit, there is a
laundry list of guys being hit with big fines for iffy plays.



Once a guy gets a rep, the Refs are all over him.

 

[slwerner]

I think you guys are forgetting about Rodney Harrison and Steve
Atwater before him. The NFL has a long history of nailing hard hitting
safeties right in their wallet. I think that Lynch is a marked
man, but not more marked than Rodney Harrison, Atwater, Darius,
Kennedy etc... If you google NFL safety fined for hit, there is a
laundry list of guys being hit with big fines for iffy plays.



Once a guy gets a rep, the Refs are all over him.

I'd agree with you, but only to a slight exent. I remember these
guys - I also remember some rather unnecessary hits on defenseless
recievers after the ball was clearly "gone". I was a Steve
Atwater fan when he played hear in Denver, but I can honestly say he
got flagged and fined for some truely "cheap" shots. The
helmet-to-helmet personal foul stuff is relatively new - and just
happens to be specifically what Lynch gets called for - not late shots
on defenseless recievers, hits out of bounds, or the kind of
infractions which warrent a flag - he gets nailed for his helmet
touching the other players during the hit.



the rule to protect defenseless recievers was needed, and I believe it
has worked to cut-down, if not eliminated cheap shots on
recievers. I don't see every game, but, I haven't noticed such a
shot on a reciever this season.



That's why the calls on Lynch stand out to me - his hits are clean, and
I don't recall him ever having a rep as a dirty player - yet refs seem
to apply a stricter standard to Lynch, as opposed to others, when it
come to the helmet rule.



To determine if Lynch, or other white players are being subjected to a
different standard, the only meaningful comparisions to make are those
with other current players, being judged by the current referee
crews. That's why I hoped others who see the same plus other
games could also indicate if they had noticed a similar trend going on
this and recent seasons.



It may be that the league would rather not have big-hitting safety's so
as to increase offensive output (fans love scores mentality), and the
harsher calls affect all safetys equally, regardless of race; or, it
could be that White guys can enjoy a good deal of success playing just
such a style, and the Caste System is in play to try to drive them out
by reducing the effectiveness of their style of play, making it easier
to justify replacing them with speedy "cover" backs. Since the public
already buys the idea that blacks are faster, they replace good popular
white players with black ones in the name of getting quicker.



Admittedly, my evidence is thin and highly subjective; but I'll keep
watching to find more. I'd urge others to keep an eye out for the
same.



slwerner

 

[backrow]

Roy Williams, Rodney Harrison, John Lynch and Steve Atwater al were/are NFL marked men... so i don't think this particular issue is color related...

 

[Bart]

An observation by Charles Robinson in hisYahoo column.


4.Denver Broncos(9-3) - Mike Shanahan made a valiant video presentation to show that safety John Lynch's helmet-to-helmet hit on Chiefs receiver Eddie Kennison wasn't illegal. But considering Lynch's reputation, sneezing on a receiver has become a fineable hit. <BR clear=all>

 

[slwerner]

But considering Lynch's reputation, sneezing on a receiver has become a fineable hit. <br clear="all">

Now, admittedly, I wasn't too familiar with John Lynch prior to the
couple of seasons leading up to Tampa's Superbowl win, but, when did he
get a bad rep? From what I've observed, he's Mr. clean-cut nice
guy. No trash talk, always something nice to say about the
oppenents, lots of charity work, a helping hand up for the men he's
tackled - a real NFL ambasador sort of guy!



Sure he's a big hitter, but he's a "clean" hitter.



Maybe someone can enlighten me about this mean, nasty, dirty John Lynch I never knew about?

 

[backrow]

John was always a big hitter, but every now and again his tackles are what refs see borderline legal and what fans see as great... he's been fined 5 times for his hits, at least 3 of those fines were questionable... since he lost a step he's a little more prone to taking it out on ballcarriers in a way that sometimes might be over the top, but damn this guys is all heart and that's just one of his ways to lead by example...

here's a link to an article about his biggest fine to date Edited by: backrow

 

[whiteCB]

Lynch is a clean cut great guy but that's off the field. On the field he is as tough and hard hitting as they come. Lynch is a marked man beacuse of his big reputatioin as a guy who cleans clocks and making big hits that are just gut wrenching to watch. This is his 13th season so the all the refs know about his big hitting ability and are always keeping an eye on him.