It Was A Great Sunday Of NFL Football Games-Maybe The Best In Its History

The Browns are fading fast in the brutal, hotly contended AFC North. In a division where the Brown legacy is written all over it, the Cleveland Browns seem to be comfortable at the bottom year after year. Cincinnati Bengals, the Browns sister team, is riding high on two rookies, and the former Browns, the Baltimore Ravens, are sitting on top. Going into the final stretch of the season there is alot of football left to play between these teams, but after beating the Steelers it appears Baltimore is emerging as the favorite, for now at least. Stay tuned, that could change in a blink of an eye. Sunday's lineup produced a boat load of down to wire thrills.

Baltimore had been leading through most of the game until Mike Wallace came across the field to snag a Ben Roethlisberger pass that was meant for Antonio Brown in the end zone. It surprised Roethlisberger and stole a moment of glory from Brown. You take'em anyway you can get'em. The touchdown put the Steelers up 20-16 with alittle under 5 minutes left. The ball exchanged hands once more and then with 2:17 left on the clock it was Baltimore's possession.

Unflappable Joe Flacco faced the daunting task of taking it down field from his own 8 yard line. He was up to the challenge. The fans of Pittsburgh cringed and watched helplessly as the Ravens marched up the green methodically, but time was favoring the Steelers. Flacco, from Pittsburghs 37, went for it all. Torey Smith was streaking into the end zone wide open. The crowd gasped as the pass was right on target, but Smith had the familiar case of butter fingers, and the crowd cheered in relief.

Flacco's receivers would let him down a second time in the end zone when David Reed dropped a perfectly delivered pass. Flacco shook off the disappointment. He had to. There were only seconds left between him and defeat. The next play Flacco took the snap and set himself, the opportunity presented itself a third time and it was Smith in the right side of the end zone. Did Flacco on seeing Smith, for a brief moment in his mind, hesitate to throw the ball to a receiver who had previously let him down? We will never know. If he did, it went unoticed as the ball landed into the arms of a sliding Smith. Redemption is sweet. Victory is sweet. Baltimore defeated the Steelers for a second time 23-20.

Green Bay and San Diego traded scores throughout three quarters. When the Packers thought they delivered the final blow, San Diego would come storming back. Green Bay scored two touchdowns in the fourth and were comfortably in the lead at 45-24. Philip Rivers and Vincent Jackson hooked up for two quick scores and the Chargers were suddenly back in the game at 45-38. With 1:05 left, the ball was back in the hands of Rivers at his own 31. A San Diego score would possibly throw the game into an overtime shootout. A pass to Antonio Gates put it at the 50 yard line. Now the end zone was in view and within Rivers reach, but a familiar Rivers nemesis reared its ugly head, the dreaded interception. A pass in the direction of Jackson fell short and it was over.

St Louis and Arizona, two teams with identical losing records faced off in Arizona. The two teams traded field goals for three quarters with the Rams in the lead 9-6. The world proceeded to fall apart for Skelton and the Cardinals. It began to rain safety's, two to be exact. St Louis was now winning 13-6. Arizona would finally tie the game in the fourth on a Skelton pass to Larry Fitzgerald. It wasn't over even though there was 51 seconds left on the clock for the Rams to do something. In football time, 51 seconds is alot, especially when you only need a field goal to win.

St Louis got that chance. From Arizona's 42, the ball left Josh Brown's foot, but we will never know if it would have been good because it was blocked. End of quarter. Now comes OT. It didn't last long, one possession to be exact. Patrick Peterson took a Donnie Jones punt 99 yards for a touchdown, Arizona 19-13 over St Louis. The sad thing about it, Jones had an opportunity to easily stop Peterson, but muffed it.

New England and NY Giants game ended with the Patriots being totally stunned. The NY Jets and Buffalo Bills traded blows with the Jets getting the better of the Bills. It was an exciting day of NFL football, maybe one of the best in its history. The Bears and Eagles are next on Monday Night Football. Will it continue?

No Offense, No Surprise-Browns Get Trashed By Ravens 20-10

This season is looking all to familiar once again as the Browns continue their losing ways in a sad but not surprising loss to Baltimore. The trash talking Ravens pretty much had their own way on both sides of the ball. The final statistics verify that final and concise summary. Delhomme or McCoy, the outcome is all the same. The illusion of capable passing or running was not discernable. The unexplainable case of the disappearing Joshua Cribbs from the offense still remains unsolved. Man-Hougini dug down deep into his nearly empty bag of tricks for a brief moment to dazzle the home town fans one final time with a Massaquoi to Robiskie touchdown surprise. A precursor to his up coming concluding curtain call and escape.

Colt Mccoy showed up with no bullets in his gun and threw three interceptions. He accumilated only 149 yds from 15 completions out of 29 attempts. It all added up to a rating of 27.0. Definately not something you would write home about. Peyton Hillis didn't fair much better. He only had 35 yds on 12 carries. Hillis was used sparingly, touching the ball a total of 12 times running and only one reception. A far cry from previous games where he was the go to guy. All-in-all it added up to very little offense when considering possession time was almost split evenly between both teams.

Obviously Baltimore made better use of its time. The Ravens pounded out the majority of its offensive yards on the ground. Ray Rice ran for 92 yds on 25 carries. McGahee, Mclain, and Flacco added another 69 yds for a total of 161. Joe Flacco threw two touchdowns on a scant 102 yds of passing, but the glory goes to the trash talking defense led by Ray Lewis. In the days leading up to the game they taunted the Browns and scoffed that Hillis would not repeat his 144-yard performance against them in Week 3. The Browns failed at proving their taunts to be nothing but hot air. Ed Reed burned McCoy twice and delivered some of the games hardest hits.

It doesn't get any easier as the Browns close out their season against Pittsburgh, another defensively hard hitting team. What almost looked like a promising year turned out to be no different than all the rest. More than likely the Browns will finish 5-11. Joshua Cribbs remains a mystery. Man-Hougini continues to leave him out of the offensive scheme. Hopefully Man-Hougini will go out swinging with everything he's got. A win against the Steelers would give the fans some gratification and 6-10 looks better than 5-11. A parting gift perhaps before he makes his escape from the shackles of mediocrity called the Cleveland Browns. Next year things will be different. It will be a breakout year for the Browns, and there's this property along the the shores of Lake Erie near the Cuyahoga River I would like to sell you. A fantastic deal you cannot pass up.