Chargers make the Ravens defense look ordinary

Reuters

Just when you think you know something, the Chargers absolutely maul the Ravens defense.

Here’s what we learned during San Diego’s 34-14 win Sunday night:

1. The Chargers scored on their first five possessions. That’s the first time that’s ever happened to the Ravens defense. It would have been six straight possessions if Nick Novak didn’t miss a field goal.

2. There were a lot of reasons San Diego’s offense dominated. The top reason: Philip Rivers is getting protected again. The Ravens pass rush made little impact, which helped Rivers throw for more than eleven yards-per-attempt, with 270 yards and one touchdown.

His receivers are healthy again. Norv Turner called a brilliant game that kept Baltimore guessing.

3. Ryan Mathews has a fumbling problem, but otherwise he’s one of the best young running backs in football. He can run inside and out. He can catch the football. His 109 yards from scrimmage with two touchdowns weren’t flashy, but Mathews helped the Chargers stay on schedule and control the tempo.

4. The Chargers had seven sacks. The Ravens had none. Huh?

5. Baltimore just blew the inside track at the No. 1 seed and now they could be headed for the No. 5 seed. If Pittsburgh wins Monday night, the Steelers should win the division. Pittsburgh finishes the season with the Rams and Browns.

Even if Pittsburgh loses, Baltimore is now behind the Patriots in the AFC race.

6. The Ravens better hope the 49ers help them out because the Ravens are a lousy road team. They are 3-4 away from home, with ugly results in Jacksonville, Tennessee, Seattle, and now San Diego. Is that a team that can win twice on the road in the playoffs?

7. Joe Flacco missed a number of key throws Sunday. The Chargers forced him to take the check down pass all day. Anquan Boldin can’t beat man coverage. Torrey Smith is a one-trick player. This Ravens offense is up-and-down at best after Ray Rice.

8. The Chargers aren’t dead yet, but they still need help at 7-7. Basically, San Diego needs to win out and hope the Broncos lose in Week 17 to the Chiefs to have a chance.

The Chargers still have a chance because of this three-game winning streak. The way Rivers is playing, you can’t count the Chargers out just yet.

We’re sure you’ve got big plans for Memorial Day weekend, but there’s no better way to kick it off than with Friday’s episode of PFT Live.

Cardinals defensive end Calais Campbell will join Mike Florio to talk about life since signing his new contract a couple of weeks ago. We’ll also find out about how things look on the defensive side of the ball in the desert where Campbell will be counted on as leader.

Florio will also speak with Ross Tucker of Sirius XM NFL Radio. Tucker, who is also a game analyst for Sports USA, and Florio will discuss the news that came out of the various Organized Team Activities around the league this week. They’ll also catch up on the juiciest quarterback competitions and talk a bit about the collusion lawsuit that has the NFLPA and NFL back at each other’s throats.

You can watch it all live at noon ET.

It’s still unknown whether NFL Network will keep Warren Sapp beyond the expiration of his contract in August.  But it is known that Showtime won’t be bringing Sapp back for Inside the NFL.

Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports that Sapp is out.  Per Jackson, Showtime has confirmed that James Brown of CBS, Phil Simms of CBS, and Cris Collinsworth of NBC will be returning.

It’s unknown whether Showtime will be replacing Sapp on the cast.  Two years ago, Showtime wanted to hire NBC’s Rodney Harrison to moonlight.  As we heard it at the time, NBC was fine with that arrangement, but CBS (which owns Showtime) didn’t want a second NBC employee on the panel.

After several weeks off the air following an outing of former Saints tight end Jeremy Shockey as the person who blew the whistle on the bounty program, Sapp has recently returned to NFL Network.

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The mystery of Lawrence Taylor’s Super Bowl ring lives on.

Despite sharing a past filled with drugs and hookers, Charlie Sheen told Dan Patrick Friday that he was not the man who bought the ring LT received after the Giants beat the Bills in Super Bowl XXV. There was a report from Jay Glazer of FOX that Taylor and his agent were told that Sheen was the buyer of the ring, which sold at auction for $230,401, but the man responsible for the Torpedo of Truth tour said that there was no truth to it.

“As much as I would be honored to own such an important artifact, I had nothing to do with the acquisition,” Sheen said, via Patrick’s producer Paulie Pabst.

And so the search goes on. We now know that it wasn’t Osi Umenyiora, Brandon Jacobs or Sheen who bought the ring. Perhaps it was Ashton Kutcher?

AP

Alex Smith raised some eyebrows this week when he used Cam Newton as an example of how great statistics from a quarterback don’t always translate to wins. Now one of Newton’s teammates is firing back.

It started when Smith got defensive about his stats, saying that he’d rather be judged by his team’s record than his passing yards.

“I could absolutely care less on yards per game,” Smith said. “I think that is a totally overblown stat because if you’re losing games in the second half, guess what, you’re like the Carolina Panthers and you’re going no-huddle the entire second half. Yeah, Cam Newton threw for a lot of 300-yard games. That’s great. You’re not winning, though.”

There’s some validity to what Smith said there: A quarterback’s passing yardage is often dependent on the score of the game, and in most of the 49ers’ games last season they were protecting leads in the second half. That’s part of the reason that Smith ranked 27th in the NFL with 196.5 passing yards a game.

But then Panthers linebacker Jon Beason took to Twitter with a valid point of his own. Beason told Smith to keep quiet about Newton, and he took a shot at Smith over the fact that the 49ers tried to sign Peyton Manning this year before settling on bringing Smith back.

“Alex smith, don’t hate on Cam Bc your stats would’ve gotten u cut if Peyton decided to come 2 San Fran.Truth b told..That’s after a 13-3 yr,” Beason wrote.

Beason is blunt, but he has a point: The 49ers tried to sign Manning, and the Panthers didn’t try to sign Manning, and the reason for that is that the 49ers aren’t as confident that Smith is their long-term answer as the Panthers are that Newton is their long-term answer.

And when Smith says to Newton, “You’re not winning,” he seems to be suggesting that Newton is to blame for the Panthers’ 6-10 record last season, and that Smith himself deserves the credit for the 49ers’ 13-3 record. And that’s nonsense.

The reason the 49ers won more games than the Panthers last season was because the 49ers’ defense and special teams were better than the Panthers’ defense and special teams. It’s ridiculous for Smith to suggest that he did more for his team than Newton did for his team when the Panthers’ offense was better than the 49ers’ offense.

Smith did a fine job last season of playing not to lose by cutting down on his turnovers and avoiding mistakes on a team whose defense and special teams were among the best in the league. But Newton did an amazing job last season of arriving on the worst team in the NFL and instantly making it competitive. Beason is right: Smith shouldn’t compare himself to Newton.

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We knew Dallas Clark would be wearing a uniform other than the Colts one he’s worn since entering his league if he played in 2012, but we didn’t know which one until he signed with the Buccaneers this week.

That wasn’t the only team that expressed interest in Clark’s services, however. The Chiefs and Patriots were also sniffing around the veteran tight end before he decided to walk the plank in Tampa. Clark went on ESPN Radio with Doug Gottlieb, which came to us via JoeBucsFan.com, to explain his decision.

“All three very, very good organizations. I had a feeling that when I was going to make the decision it was just going to be easy and it was going to be clear cut,” Clark said. “But man, when you have these three teams involved and these three organizations, it was extremely hard. You know, it took me a few days, but at the end of the day it just felt right down here in Tampa.”

Not to cast aspersions on Clark’s soul searching or anything, but it doesn’t take transcendental meditation to figure out why it felt right in Tampa. The Buccaneers traded away Kellen Winslow, leaving plenty of snaps for Clark’s taking if he is healthy enough to grab them.

That wouldn’t be the case in New England, where Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez have the position locked down. Kansas City has Tony Moeaki and Kevin Boss at tight end, which might not be quite as daunting a duo but would definitely get in the way of ample playing time for Clark.

AP

Three weeks ago, I desperately wanted a break from all the stories about whether kids should play football.  Now, I desperately want a break from all the stories about the back-to-the-future toxic relationship between the NFL and the NFLPA.

And, of course, the respite comes via another story about whether kids should play football.

But this one goes the other way.  It’s not about why kids shouldn’t play football.  It’s about why kids should play football.

Steelers safety Troy Polamalu had this to say on the subject, via the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:  “Absolutely.  You face so many different adversities.  You deal with so much emotionally, but what makes this sport unique is that you can deal with a lot physically.  You face guys that are bigger, stronger and faster than you.  You can be physically dominated, but you still have to get up and fight.  That’s a type of thing you can’t learn anywhere else, especially not in any other sport.”

Teammate Larry Foote agrees.  “Yes, because they’re just starting to scratch the surface of making the game safer — and they are trying,” Foote said, perhaps not recognizing the irony in his remarks regarding safety, given that his teammates consistently complain about efforts to make the game safer.  “My son isn’t going to be skateboarding or any X-Games type of activities.  The way I feel about that stuff is the way some people feel about football, that it isn’t safe.  But I know how football challenges you every day, how you learn discipline and control.  Once you start learning those things you can apply them to anything, including studying and especially life.”

Of course, the same could be said of skateboarding or X-Games activities, or plenty of other sports or endeavors that entail physical exertion and, in turn, physical risk.

Polamalu acknowledges that everyone may assess those risks differently.  “I don’t know if parents should feel comfortable [letting kids play football], to be honest,” Polamalu said.  “It’s not the responsibility of the game to make anybody feel comfortable.”

The question is how much risk — and in turn discomfort — will be tolerated by a parent, or by the child once the child is old enough to make his or her own decision.  It’s unclear where the line is.  But for most parents it still resides somewhere between playing football and re-enacting scenes from the Jackass movies.

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Mark Sanchez and Tim Tebow might be all about competition these days, but Sanchez’s agent doesn’t think it will amount to much.

On a busy day when breathless reports of the 7-on-7 drills at Jets OTAs provided another clue about how all-encompassing coverage of the Jets will be this season, Sanchez’s agent Brian Murphy took to Twitter to pump up his client. Murphy doesn’t take kindly to the media’s attempt to make Sanchez-Tebow into a full-fledged fight for the starting quarterback job.

“No offense media, but of course Sanchez is going to out perform Tim T. Mark is a franchise quarterback and Tim is a great athlete.”

It’s true, Sanchez is a franchise quarterback. It just happens to be for a franchise that saw no problem bringing in a quarterback that they knew would instantly and constantly fan the flames for Sanchez to be replaced as the team’s starter. The fact that Sanchez outperforms Tebow in practice isn’t going to change that one bit.

Like everyone who has criticized Tebow, Murphy quickly realized that it is a sure way to ruffle feathers. He tried to smooth them out a little bit later, again via Twitter.

“Didn’t mean to create a stir nor disrespect TT who has done nothing but excel on football field. This is my opinion and time will tell.”

Not bad for the first full day of the Sanchez-Tebow Jets. Things should only get better (for those of us watching, anyway) from here on out.

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Over the past several weeks, ample discussion and speculation have emerged regarding the teams that will (or, more accurately, won’t) appear on HBO’s Hard Knocks.

Michael Shain of the New York Post (via SportsBusiness Daily) reports that HBO wants to have its team picked by June 1.

Plenty of franchises are out of the running.  Redskins coach Mike Shanahan and Seahawks G.M. John Schneider separately have told PFT Live over the past week or so that their teams aren’t interested.  49ers owner Jed York removed his team from the running in response to a PFT tweet regarding Shanahan’s lack of interest.  Also, the Falcons previously declined an offer to appear on the program.

The Broncos reportedly have passed.  Ditto for the Texans.  Jets G.M. Mike Tannenbaum told PFT Live last week that the Jets haven’t been offered the assignment (which possibly means they’ve made it known in advance that they don’t want to do it).

Per the report, NFL Films president Steve Sabol has been unable to personally recruit teams as he continues to fight brain cancer.  “Without him going out to the teams twisting arms,” an unnamed “insider” told the Post, “it’s been hard.”

Still, HBO privately claims that there will be a team, and thus there will be a show.  (The Jaguars currently are believed to be the only team that actually wants to do it.)

My first choice would be the Jets.  Then the Saints.  Then the Broncos, Colts, and Redskins.  Beyond those five teams, it simply won’t be appointment viewing in 2012.

I’ve got a feeling — just a feeling — it’s going to be the Cowboys.

Feel free to post your preferences and/or guesses in the comments.

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When Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall tore his ACL in the season finale, it created some doubt about whether he’d be able to get back on the field in time to help the team during the 2012 season.

Mendenhall still isn’t sure when he’ll be back, but he’s adamant that he won’t miss the entire season. Scott Brown of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that the team is prepared for the possibility that he will have to start the year on the PUP list, but Mendenhall isn’t willing to give up hope that he’ll be on the field for the Sunday night game against the Broncos on September 9th.

“There’s always the possibility,” Mendenhall said. “I’ll be back at some point. It’s just a matter of what point that is.”

Mendenhall said that he has been running and cutting, but that he also still has soreness and swelling in the knee. That makes it difficult to predict what kind of shape Mendenhall will be in when September rolls around. The fact that he’s entering the final year of his contract makes it more likely that Mendenhall will make sure he’s fully ready to play before pushing himself too far too fast.

Isaac Redman will likely take Mendenhall’s place in the starting lineup with Jonathan Dwyer, Baron Batch and rookie Chris Rainey also in the backfield mix.

Reuters

Last month the NFL and the players’ union agreed that before testing of players for human growth hormone would begin, a population study would be conducted at an independent lab to help determine the threshold for what constitutes a positive test for HGH. But now that agreement has hit a snag.

NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith said at his press conference on Thursday that a new lab will have to be found to conduct the study, because the researcher the NFL initially commissioned now says he can’t do the job.

“We just recently found out . . . the league’s choice to run the population study that we had consented to recently withdrew and said that he wasn’t the right person to get this done,” Smith said. “I’m thrilled that the league has made a decision to move forward with the population study. I’m a little frustrated that their selection has now pulled out so that we have to again re-up and try to get this done.”

The league and the union agreed last year that players would get blood tests for HGH. But those tests still haven’t begun because the two sides haven’t been able to agree on all the details of that testing. Smith said Thursday that the population study is not the only outstanding issue.

So even though it was agreed to nearly a year ago, HGH testing may not begin any time soon.

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Bills DT Torell Troup is hoping for a redemptive season.

Will RB Reggie Bush factor on returns for the Dolphins?

RB Joseph Addai is getting used to life as a member of the Patriots.

Jets RB Shonn Greene looked slimmer at Thursday’s practice.

Ravens S Bernard Pollard called his extension with the team a blessing.

Defensive assistant Hue Jackson has been an animated presence at Bengals practices.

CB Sheldon Brown is helping Browns rookies transition to the NFL.

Steelers CB Keenan Lewis is excited about the opportunities in front of him this season.

QB Case Keenum is getting used to taking snaps from center at Texans practice.

Paul Kuharsky of ESPN.com outlines dream and nightmare scenarios for the Colts.

Former Jaguars T Richard Collier, paralyzed in a shooting in 2008, spoke to the team on Thursday.

The Titans are building a performance stage at LP Field.

There aren’t too many people missing Tim Tebow around the Broncos.

DT Dontari Poe is seeing more snaps in passing situations during Chiefs practice.

Raiders rookies are feeling a bit more comfortable after two weeks of practice with the team’s veterans.

Chargers LB Shaun Phillips likes the new additions to the defense.

QB Stephen McGee could lose his spot on the Cowboys roster.

The Giants signed CB Dante Hughes to replace Brian Witherspoon on the roster.

Said Eagles coach Andy Reid of QB Nick Foles, “Lots of little things. He’s completing balls and his completion percentage is way up there. He’s doing a good job with that and knowing the limited amount that he knows right now. He’s a smart kid and we’re throwing a ton at him right now. We really like his attitude.”

Redskins WR Santana Moss wants to regain the form that eluded him last season.

Bears RB Michael Bush knows that he’s going to play a similar role to the one he played in Oakland.

Chris McCosky of the Detroit News thinks Lions WR Titus Young deserves the benefit of the doubt after the incident with S Louis Delmas.

The Packers have an over/under of 12 wins in Vegas.

A roundup of what’s been going on at Vikings OTAs.

Curtis Lofton hopes to prove the Falcons wrong in their assessment of his abilities.

Panthers WR David Gettis said he’s on schedule for his return from a torn ACL.

Said Saints QB Chase Daniel, “I’d say I’m number 1-B right now. I obviously know what my role is on this team. And right now it’s to prepare like the starter and to take the No. 1 snaps. This is Drew’s team. I’m just here to fill in and get ready and prepare like the starter, you know, like I have from 2009, when I started here.”

T Donald Penn wants to see more running from the Buccaneers offense this season.

Rookie T Bobbie Massie is working as a backup, but the Cardinals want him to compete for the starting right tackle job.

RB Steven Jackson likes the way the Rams offense looks right now.

The 49ers won’t move T Anthony Davis to guard this offseason.

Seahawks T James Carpenter ran for the first time since ACL surgery.

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With the labor agreement between the NFL and its game officials expiring in less than a week, pro football will be heading back to the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service in Washington, in the hopes of working out a new deal before a lockout or a strike.

Via Mark Maske of the Washington Post, the FMCS announced on Thursday that the league and the officials’ union have accepted an offer to submit their labor dispute to mediation, an informal process where the mediator has no power over the parties, other than possibly the power of persuasion.

The NFL’s labor dispute with players went to the FMCS before the lockout began.  Once a federal antitrust lawsuit was filed against the league, it made more sense to conduct mediation within the confines of the litigation, for a variety of reasons (including the reality that mediation conducted under the umbrella of a lawsuit generally helps keep the parties in line, since the mediator has a pipeline to the judge).

The NFL already has commenced the process of lining up replacements, something the NFL did 11 years ago.  Today, however, with unprecedented focus on player safety (and increased burdens on officials to spot possible concussions), an effort to replace the officials could be extremely controversial, especially in light of the current relationship between the NFL and NFLPA.

Especially if the officials strike — and if the players are inclined to respect their picket line.

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When he kicks for the Lions this year, Jason Hanson will break the NFL record of 20 consecutive seasons with one team, which he currently shares with Jackie Slater and Darrell Green. And he doesn’t think he’s much different as a kicker now than he was when the Lions took him in the second round of the 1992 NFL draft.

“I never thought I’d play this long,” Hanson told the Detroit Free Press. “I just know this: I know that when I’m kicking, I can kick as well as I ever have. And it’s just enough to make it each year.”

Hanson, who went 5-for-7 on field goal attempts of 50 yards or longer last season, becoming the first player in NFL history to have 50 field goals of 50 yards or longer in his career, is virtually assured of being the Lions’ kicker again this season. But he says the presence of undrafted rookie kicker Derek Dimke on the offseason roster means he views himself as competing for his job.

“You always have to perform,” Hanson said. “Always. There’s a few guys who are young and at the top of their game where they’re the guys. But everyone else, ‘Hey, Hanson, let’s see what you got?’ And once you reprove it and they’re like, ‘He’s ready,’ great. But as soon as you show up and your kickoffs are a little shorter and your hang times are down or you’ve missed a few more than you usually do, you bring young guys in who are good and they’re fired up.”

Hanson sounds fired up for at least one year. Maybe this will be the year the Lions do something that they haven’t done in his 20 seasons: Win a playoff game.

AP

The Randy Moss redemption tour continues to generate positive reviews from teammates and coaches in San Francisco, who have seen so far only the good and none of the bad that Moss has displayed during his 13 prior NFL seasons.

Linebacker Patrick Willis has become the latest player to gush about Moss, saying via Cam Inman of the Contra Costa Times that Moss has to date been “unbelievable.”

“It’s an honor to have a guy like that on our team,” Willis said.  “For people to say the things they said about him, that’s in the past.  All we know is what we’ve seen here, and that’s all that counts to us.”

But it’s not an issue of people calling Randy names or subjecting him to unfair criticism.  Moss has, at times, flat-out quit on his team.  When things are going well, it’s not a problem.  But once the losses mount and the passes are sailing over his head or not coming his way at all, Moss will disappear before his teammates’ eyes, fading into the background at best, creating problems in the locker room at worst.

The 49ers’ goal may be to nudge Moss toward behaving well by talking so much about his good behavior and acting as if tales of his bad behavior are exaggerated or embellished.  Coach Jim Harbaugh, for example, has said Moss is “like a coach,” and that his attendance and attention at offseason sessions has been “impeccable.”

If the 2012 49ers come out of the gates like the 1998 Vikings or the 2007 Patriots, the Niners may never see the other side of Randy Moss.  If, come November, they’re 4-5 and three games behind the Seahawks and Moss is getting targeted two or three times a game, Patrick Willis could once again be thinking that Moss is “unbelievable,” but for entirely different reasons.

Either way, here’s hoping that the food served to the team is at all times deemed fit for Randy’s dog.

AP

In a wide-ranging press conference held outside the NFLPA’s offices on Thursday, executive director DeMaurice Smith addressed the bounty allegations against four players:  Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma, Saints defensive end Will Smith, Packers defensive end Anthony Hargrove, and Browns linebacker Scott Fujita.  Smith emphasized a point that the union has been making for several weeks — and that the NFL has yet to rectify, privately or publicly.

“We have not seen one piece of evidence that would show that one of those players got paid to target a player and injure him and get him out of the game,” Smith said.

There very well may be ample evidence to support that conclusion.  Every line of those 50,000 pages generated by the investigation may implicate every man who played for the Saints’ defense from 2009 through 2011.  But until the NFL shares the information with the NFLPA and/or with the media, there’s no way to confirm that the evidence exists.

Smith also addressed the contention that the NFLPA has a conflict of interest when it comes to representing the rights of the players accused of acting on bounties and the players who were the targets.  Though unions routinely must balance potentially competing interests whenever a member of the rank and file is accused of doing something to a coworker, the conflict of interest doesn’t arise unless and until there’s evidence that one employee infringed on the rights of another employee.

Again, there could be a mountain of evidence on that point.  But until the evidence is shared, there’s no way to know whether the NFL’s conclusions are accurate, or whether the NFL has incorrectly concluded that a pay-for-performance program coupled with tough talk in the locker room translated to a band of assassins who were treating their union brethren like the Mean Machine treated the guards.