Ryan Ward's Blog
Posted by Ryan Ward
Wow! That all that can be said about this kid out of Texas, he just keeps winning and winning. With a win on Christmas Eve against Buffalo, Vince Young and the Titans have extended their win streak to six straight. Vinsanity was excellent once again passing for 183 yards, two touchdowns and rushing for 61 yards, one touchdown. Tennessee took another step closer to the post season pulling out yet another close victory, 30-29 over the Bills.
No one ever expected Vince Young to have this kind of impact this quick with a team like the Titans. Coming into the 2006 season, the league had a talented draft class of Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush, Jay Culter and Vince Young, the NFL and it's fans have kept their eye on Bush and the newly high powered offense of the New Orleans Saints, but the Titans and Young have made a quiet surge as of late, from the worst team in the league into a potential playoff contender.
Vince Young has been nothing short of spectacular as a starter for Tennessee Titans this season, with a 0-5 start and what seemed to be a rookie learning process, Vince has completely turned his team around with a new found confidence, comeback victorys and solid play on a weekly basis. Becoming a consistent performer, Vince is dangerous with his feet as well as his arm, which was proven a couple of weeks ago with a 39 yard touchdown run in overtime to beat Houston.
With wins over the Colts(ending their undefeated season), Jacksonville, New York Giants, Eagles and one point losses to Baltimore and Indianapolis early in the season, Young has proved he can play with the big boys and is only getting better with every game. The way Tennessee is playing right now anything can happen and the Titans just might end up in the playoffs shaking things up.
Posted by Ryan Ward
Weak running game, inconsistent passing game and bad defense. That is all talk that has been coming out of Arizona, but things are starting to look different for the Cardinals lately, especially with the last two games against St. Louis and Seattle ending in a victory and the team looking very good offensively.
Matt Leinart had a good day against Seatlle going 21 for 34, throwing for two touchdowns and one interception. But the big story has been Edgerrin James. As most football fans (well at least fantasy football fans) know, Edge has not done anything that has been expected of him this year. James has only rushed for over 100 yards twice this season (which have come in the last two games) with only four touchdowns to his credit, but hopefully for all the Cardinals fans out there this a sign of things to come. Seeing 115 yards out of Egde in two consecutive games is nothing but a good thing for Arizona.
The Cardinals have the potential to be playoff team and an offensive juggernaut, but they just need some chemistry and time to develop as a team. Just to look at their roster there are a lot of bright spots, especially on an offense that includes Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin, Edgerrin James, Matt Leinart and Kurt Warner. All of these players are top athletes and have Pro Bowl written all over them. I would look for Arizona be a contender to come out on top of the NFC West next year with an offense similar to Kurt Warner's old team in St. Louis.
Posted by Ryan Ward
Barry Sanders, Walter Payton, Jim Brown, Gale Sayers, and OJ Simpson(if anyone even remembers him as a football player anymore). These five running backs are arguably in the top ten list of greatest RBs ever to play the game and not many people will disagree with that statement. Is LT next to be mentioned with the immortal backs?
Since the early retirement of Barry Sanders, there has not been much talk about "the best running back all time". At least until LaDainian Tomlinson from the San Diego Chargers exploded onto the scene about six years ago. Number 21 has been nothing short of unstoppable in his short career with the Chargers. This kid has been so good this season that in the twelve games LT has played, only two of them(against Baltimore and Pittsburgh), has he failed to reach the endzone.
In the ten games where LT has reached the endzone, Tomlinson has rushed for twenty-three touchdowns and has three receiving touchdowns. Not to mention a couple a passing TDs to go along with his soon to be record breaking stats. With a grand total of twenty-six touchdowns(not including the passing TDs) Tomlinson is three TDs away from breaking Shaun Alexander's record of twenty-eight from last year. Only four games to go and Tomlinson is projected to reach thirty-one TDs and shatter Alexander's short lived record. So the question is "Is he one of the greats?" Only time will tell, but he has my vote!
Posted by Ryan Ward
There are fourteen teams in the NFL this year that are taking a different approach at the quarterback position and it is giving rookies and younger talent a chance to prove themselves quicker than expected. Out of these fourteen teams only three quarterbacks had a starting position last season with Ben Roethlisberger in Pittsburgh, Eli Manning in New York and Alex Smith by the Bay in San Francisco. Two of these starters from last year proved to be a success, with Roethlisberger getting a Super Bowl title and Eli leading his Giants to a 11-5 record. Unfortunately, Alex Smith didn't have the same luck with the 'Niners with a record of 4-12.
This change has not been too bad for some teams like the San Diego Chargers going 9-2 with Phillip Rivers and having one of the best offenses in the NFL. Or the Dallas Cowboys (7-4) with Tony Romo, who threw for five touchdowns on Thanksgiving against Tampa Bay. Then you have others who haven't been so lucky, like Vince Young, Tennessee Titans (4-7), Matt Leinart, Arizona Cardinals (2-9), Charlie Frye, Cleveland Browns (3-8), Bruce Gradkowski, Tampa Buccaneers (3-8). It will be interesting to see what happens in the future!
Posted by Ryan Ward
Super Bowl repeat? Ben Roethlisberger future Hall of Famer? Can anyone stop the Pittsburgh Steelers?
These questions were all the buzz in the begining of the season in the NFL, but now they have very simple and short answers. Will the Steelers repeat? No way! Will Ben Roethlisberger become the next Steeler Hall of Famer? Only if the voters forget about this year. Who can stop the champs? Everyone and maybe even the Ohio State Buckeyes!
Probably one of the biggest disappointments of a defending Super Bowl champ in recent memory, Pittsburgh has not lived up to expectations this season at all. The Steelers can't stop anyone and rarely score. It was made even more obvious that this team has drastically changed from last year's squad Sunday, when they took on the smoking-hot Baltimore Ravens.
The Ravens completely destroyed any hope of a change in the Steelers this season with a 27-0 shutout. Ben Roethlisberger got sacked an embarassing nine times and threw two interceptions. The nine sacks set a new franchise record for the Ravens and the two picks for Big Ben is starting to become an every-week guarantee.
With Pittsburgh dropping to a 4-7 record and losing all hope for a possible post-season berth, the Steelers are going to have to do some serious thinking about whether or not they are putting the right group of players on the field. New questions will start to surface in the off season and changes in the starting rotation and/or coaching might be just around the corner. Will they be able to get back to championship form? Only time will tell, but it sure isn't going to happen anytime soon!
