Alex Smith and Vince Young have crossed paths on several occasions at NFL functions. They've offered each other some encouraging words during the difficult times, like after each lost his starting job. The once highly touted quarterbacks' NFL fates have taken a similar bumpy road, and now they're both back behind center, ready to square off Sunday when Young's Tennessee Titans come…
No question, the St. Louis Rams deserve to be 1-7. So far, they've proven only that they can beat another really bad team. To match or — gasp — top last year's 2-14 record, they know they'll have to step it up. "We've just got to keep plugging away," rookie head coach Steve Spagnuolo said during the bye week.
It was hidden beneath the pure organizational debaclizations of the St. Louis Rams and the Detroit Lions, but a…
It’s amazing how the perception of a team can change 180 degrees in a week.
After their victory over the Giants in Week 7, the Cardinals appeared to be on course for another NFC West title.
It was their third consecutive victory, their biggest regular-season road win in years, and they were 4-2 with a so-called “easy” schedule ahead.
But last week’s 34-21 loss to the Panthers brought everyone down to earth. Now, people are wondering how a defense that ranked first in the league against the run could yield 270 rushing yards.
They are wondering why one of the league’s best receivers, Larry Fitzgerald, can’t get open for the deep pass. Or why coach Ken Whisenhunt isn’t designing better plays to get him open.
San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye is not going change his approach just because two main components of the team’s offense have changed.
With quarterback Alex Smith and receiver Michael Crabtree added to the mix, the 49ers seem to have more firepower with the passing game. But don’t expect Raye to implement a spread offense with regularity. The 49ers used that formation in a two-minute drill at the end of the first half to produce a touchdown last week against the Indianapolis Colts.
“(If) we were going to take this deal and become a shotgun, wide-open and throw the ball 48 or 52 times a game, then we’d have to do an awful lot of changing,” Raye said.
“The quarterback (Smith) has played six quarters, and people are now starting to refer to his…
More than a month after suffering a rib injury against San Francisco on Sept. 20 that forced him to miss two games, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck says he’s getting closer to feeling 100 percent healthy.
Hasselbeck was a limited participant in practice on Wednesday as more of a precaution, but was a full participant on Thursday and said he feels fine for Sunday’s game.
Hasselbeck also said the healing process has been slowed by coming back from the injury early, but that he is getting better each week, and hopes to be fully healthy sooner rather than later.
“One of the things when you come back early from an injury when you really shouldn’t probably, you add on some healing time,” he said.
It had been three days and the Rams were practicing before getting four days off in their bye week. But it was clear that what coaches like to call the 24-hour rule was not in effect.
Looking ahead is what coaches and players are supposed to do once that 24-hour window after a game passes, win or lose.
But this was different for the Rams. Not only was Sunday’s win over Detroit the first of the season and the first for head coach Steve Spagnuolo, but it also snapped a league-long 17-game losing streak.
In addition, even as the game was 72-hours in the rear-view mirror, the performance by running back Steven Jackson was still on everyone’s mind.
It helped that there is no game to prepare for this week, so Jackson’s exploits could be dissected even more.
No one in Seattle will ever confuse T.J. Houshmandzadeh with Steve Largent. The outspoken Houshmandzadeh is "shocked" with the fuss being made in his first Seahawks season over his angry gestures and comments about not getting the ball enough, in a city where people are used to their star receivers being quiet yet ultra productive — like Largent.
ProFootballTalk.com's Mike Florio weighs in on the biggest story lines of Week 9: 1. Dolphins take Wildcat…
It's looking like Detroit Lions running back Kevin Smith and wide receiver Calvin Johnson will be both back…