D4 TELEVISIONGAMES
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EZ RE NFL WEEK 12
KLMNO 6
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2010
THE LEAGUE: The Post’s blog is your place for all things NFL during the season.
www.washingtonpost.com/theleague
Miami Dolphins at Oakland Raiders
4 p.m.WUSA-9,Raiders by 21/2
TheRaiders are looking towin four straight home games for the first time since
2002-03.Kicker Sebastian Janikowski leads theNFLwith 23 FGs and is tied for the leadwith 92
points.Dolphins LBCameronWake leads theAFCwith 9½sacks. RBRonnieBrown has topped 100 yards rushing his past two games against theRaiders.
SMARTERSTATS:TheRaiders have theNFL’s second-worst sack per attempt total (10.13 percent), and it’s starting to affect the team. Jason Campbellwas knocked out of the Steelers game Sunday andwas replaced byBruceGradkowski. Oakland tacklesMarioHenderson, Jared Veldheer, and LangstonWalker have combined to allow11 sacks in just 11 games.
USERS PICKINGTHERAIDERS 75% GAMESNOTONTELEVISION
Green Bay at Atlanta 1 p.m., Falcons by 2
MATCHUP
The Packers have surrendered only 10 points in their last three games. Green Bay has six receivers with at least 21 catches, led by Greg Jennings with 46. The Falcons are the least-penalized team in the NFL. They have been flagged 48 times, and only 38 penalties have been accepted by opponents.
Pittsburgh at Buffalo 1 p.m., Steelers by 61/2
Since his first start inWeek 6, Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger leads the NFL with 1,579 yards passing and ranks fourth with a 101.9 passer rating. PittsburghWRMikeWallace has three straight 100-yard receiving games. The Bills have won two straight for first time since Weeks 6-7 of last year.
Carolina at Cleveland 1 p.m., Browns by 10
The Browns forced six turnovers—five in the second half—last week at Jacksonville and still lost. Teams with a plus-5 turnover ratio have won 96 percent of the time since the league merger in 1970. The Browns have faced the NFL’s toughest schedule. Of 14 teams with six wins or more, the Browns have played nine.
Jacksonville at N.Y. Giants 1 p.m., Giants by 7
Jaguars RB Maurice Jones-Drew has three straight 100-yard rushing games and needs 122 more yards to reach 1,000 for the second straight year. Giants QB Eli Manning has 21 TDs this season, becoming the seventh QB in NFL history to have six consecutive seasons with 20- plus TD passes.
Tennessee at Houston 1 p.m., Houston by 61/2
Texans RB Arian Foster leads the league in yards rushing (1,004). Titans RB Chris Johnson ranks third (968). Foster also leads the NFL in total yards from scrimmage (1,382) and first downs gained (80). Titans WRRandy Moss has 949 career receptions, and needs three more to pass Andre Reed for eighth on the all-time list.
Philadelphia at Chicago 4:15 p.m., Eagles by 31/2
Chicago and Green Bay have allowed the fewest points in the NFL (146), and opposing offenses have scored a league-low 130 points against the Bears’ defense. The Bears are second in the NFL with 25 takeaways. Eagles QB Michael Vick’s 108.7 passer rating leads the league. He has 11 TD passes without an interception.
Kansas City at Seattle 4:05 p.m., Chiefs by 2
The Chiefs have committed a league-low seven turnovers through 10 games. The K.C. defense is giving up less than 13 ppg in each of its six victories. Seattle’s run game has not topped 60 yards in three of its past four games, all losses. Marshawn Lynch is averaging 3.1 yards per carry since coming over in a trade from Buffalo.
St. Louis at Denver 4:15 p.m., Broncos by 31/2
In his eighth NFL season,WRBrandon Lloyd reached 1,000 yards in a season for the first time in his career. He leads the league with 1,046 yards receiving and 19 catches of 20 or more yards. He has a career- best seven TD catches so far. Rams DE Chris Long has five sacks, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery in the last five games.
Tampa Bay Bucs at Baltimore Ravens
4:15 p.m.,WTTG-5, Ravens by 71/2
The Ravens’ defense has allowed only 12 points in the third quarter and has gone 19 straight games without allowing third quarter TD. Bucs WRMike Williams leads rookies with 681 yards receiving.He has six touchdowns, a big reason the Bucs lead the league with 13 TDs by rookies.
SMARTER STATS: Bucs first-round pick Gerald McCoy was catching some flak early in the season as Ndamukong Suh stood out for Detroit andMcCoy was relatively invisible. ButMcCoy is starting to catch up; throughWeek 10, the defensive tackle has amassed six rushing Defeats (as many as Suh, and second in the league), and he’s allowing just 1.2 yards per run attempt in his direction, better than Suh’s 2.5.
USERS PICKING THE RAVENS 88%
San Diego Chargers at Indianapolis Colts
8:15 p.m.,WRC-4, Colts by 21/2
The Chargers have won four of the last five in this series, a string that started with ruining Colts’ bid for perfect season in 2005 and ended with a playoff win in their last meeting. ... Philip Rivers is tied for the NFL lead with 23 touchdown passes.
SMARTER STATS:Not only are the Chargers first in the NFL in the number of Big Plays (pass plays of 25 yards or more) with 36, they’re also second in the league with 1,611 yards after the catch. Only the Detroit Lions are better in that category. The Colts are starting to slip in defensive passing efficiency, especially againstNo. 1 receivers. They’ve gone from first to 10th in the last month, and the Chargers get Vincent Jackson back.
USERS PICKING THE COLTS 79% SMARTER STATS
The Packers have the NFL’s best pass defense per Football Outsiders’ efficiency metrics, and they’re eighth versusNo. 1 receivers. AtlantaWR RoddyWhite is tied with Cincinnati’s Terrell Owens as the NFL’s most- targeted player with 116 passes. But the Packers are 20th against tight ends; the Falcons have Tony Gonzalez, with 71 targets of his own.
Bills S Jairus Byrd had nine interceptions in his 2009 rookie campaign. This season, he has no picks and just one pass defensed. Wallace, who leads the NFL with a 23 yards-per-reception average, is not who a safety with trouble defending deep passes wants to see.
It’s official: The Panthers have created the perfect end zone repellent. Unfortunately, they’re using it on themselves. Carolina ranks last in the league in offensive efficiency in the red zone (both pass and run) and in all goal-to-go situations. They’ve converted just 25 percent of red zone and 28.57 percent of goal-to-go chances, both league-worsts.
The Giants rank fifth in Defensive Adjusted Line Yards, which assign responsibility for running plays based on play length, down, distance, and opponent. However, they’re 21st in the league in causing negative plays, and they’re facing Jones-Drew, who is one of the NFL’s best at pushing the pile.
It’s time to recognize the Texans’ pass defense as one of the worst of the modern era. Houston is the only team allowing more than 300 passing yards per game this year, and its 25 passing TDs allowed is five more than the second-worst team. Houston also has allowed 13 pass plays of 40 yards or more, again a league worst.
The Giants were adept at forcing Vick to his right last week, making him throw against his body. He is least effective on plays going to his right (6.58 yards per attempt, 84.0 quarterback rating). But Vick is one of the NFL’s most effective quarterbacks when throwing to the right sideline (9.27 YPA, 127.2 quarterback rating).
The Seahawks could be in trouble against the Chiefs’ league-best running game. The Chiefs aren’t just able to bull it up the middle with Thomas Jones; they also have the most running plays of 10 yards or more with 45. Seattle has its own advantage in QB Matt Hasselbeck, who threw for 366 yards against the Saints’ top pass defense Sunday.
Denver’s Kyle Orton continues to get subpar praise for the season he’s putting together. Orton’s yards per catch average of 8.9 is just below Michael Vick’s in the rankings, and his 1.5 interception percentage is the lowest among all quarterbacks who have thrown a pick with a YPC of 8.5 or more.
San Francisco 49ers at Arizona Cardinals
8: 30 p.m. Monday, ESPN, 49ers by 1
The 49ers have not allowed a player to rush for 100 yards in 16 games, the second-longest active streak in the NFL, behind theNewYork Jets’ 17. The Cardinals have converted 9 of 39 third-down attempts in last three games and have 29 percent conversion rate for season.
SMARTER STATS: After three starts for the 49ers, Troy Smith ranks 32nd in cumulative quarterback efficiency, and the Cardinals’ Derek Anderson ranks 38th. Amazingly, both signal- callers are doing better than the guys they replaced. San Francisco’s Alex Smith ranks 34th in quarterback efficiency, and Arizona’sMaxHall has the worst rating among any quarterback with at least 80 passes this season.
USERS PICKING THE CARDINALS 56% USER PICKS
53% picked the Falcons
96% picked the Steelers
96% picked the Browns
88% picked the Giants
77% picked the Texans
76% picked the Eagles
75% picked the Chiefs
69% picked the Broncos
NFL fines Broncos after employee tapes 49ers practice
Team and coach are penalized
a total of $100,000 BY MARK MASKE
The NFL fined the Denver
Broncos and their coach, Josh McDaniels, a total of $100,000 in connection to an incident last month in which a Broncos em- ployee improperly videotaped about six minutes of a San Fran- cisco 49ers practice the day be- fore the teams played each other in London.
McDaniels and the Broncos
were fined $50,000 each by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, the league announced Saturday. The Broncos fired the employ-
ee who did the videotaping and he faces a possible ban from the NFL, the league announced. “We have no more important
responsibility than preserving the integrity and competitive fairness of the game and avoiding any implication that games are decided by anything other than what takes place on the field,” Goodell wrote in a letter to Bron- cos owner Pat Bowlen, according to the league’s announcement. The 49ers beat the Broncos,
24-16, at Wembley Stadium on Oct. 31. Bowlen called the episode “personally disappointing” and said in a written statement, “This incident cuts into the trust and respect our fans, our ticket hold- ers, our community and our fel- low competitors have for our organization.” The employee who taped the
49ers’ practice, Steve Scarnec- chia, was fired with cause by the Broncos, the NFL announced. Scarnecchia is a repeat offender of league rules related to the integrity of the game and faces a hearing to determine whether he will be barred from the NFL for
conduct detrimental to the league, according to the an- nouncement. Both Scarnecchia and McDan-
iels formerly worked for the New England Patriots. In September 2007, Goodell fined the Patriots $250,000 and Coach Bill Belichick $500,000, and stripped the team of a first-round draft selection after it was caught vid- eotaping the defensive play sig- nals of the New York Jets’ coach- es, in violation of league rules, during the opening game of that season. McDaniels was fined for failing
to report the Broncos incident to the league as required, the NFL
announced. The Broncos were fined because they were held accountable for their employees’ actions, according to the league’s announcement. According to the league, Scar-
necchia took the videotape of the 49ers’ practice to McDaniels but McDaniels refused to watch it. The league’s investigation found that no other members of the Broncos’ coaching staff watched the tape of the 49ers’ practice, either.
According to the league, Bron-
cos executives learned Nov. 8 of the improper videotaping. The team conducted its own reviewof the incident and then contacted
the NFL office four days later, according to the league. “This is an incident done by
one employee and one employee only,” Joe Ellis, the chief operat- ing officer of the Broncos, said in a conference call with reporters. Jeff Pash, the NFL’s executive
vice president of labor and league counsel, said the league had no reason to believe at this point that the issue with the Broncos was any more widespread than the single episode by Scarnec- chia. “We’re as satisfied of that as we
can be right now,” Pash said in a conference call.
maskem@washpost.com
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