Panthers dominate Vikings 35-10

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A week ago, if you’d have suggested to many Panthers fans that Derek Anderson would have replaced Cam Newton, some of them (OK, the insane ones) might have taken you up on it.

But Sunday, Anderson was just the victory cigar, coming in to finish the fourth quarter of a ridiculous 35-10 win over the Vikings.

Coupled with the 38-0 thrashing of the Giants, the Panthers now have a pair of big wins against teams with a combined 1-10 record.

The Panthers did everything according to plan. They ran well (fullback Mike Tolbert scored a pair of touchdowns), played good defense, and Cam Newton didn’t make mistakes. That’s a solid plan.They should do it more often.

Newton finished the day 20-of-26 for 242 yards and three touchdowns, for a quarterback rating of 143.4.

Meanwhile, the Vikings were a mess in every imaginable way. With Josh Freeman watching the game in street clothes, (for now) starting quarterback Matt Cassel threw a pair of interceptions, and never looked like the efficient guy who turned up in London.

The Panthers sold out to stop the run, and while Adrian Peterson had 62 yards on 10 carries (half coming on one 31-yard run), the hole was too deep, too soon to rely on him.

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The Washington Redskins placed running back Evan Royster on injured reserve Tuesday.

Royster suffered an ankle injury during the Redskins 45-10 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday. Royster appeared in 10 games for the Redskins this season playing primarily on special teams. Royster had just two carries for zero yards and one catch for three yards this season.

To replace Royster on the roster, the Redskins promoted running back Jawan Jamison from the practice squad.

Jamison carried 16 times for 54 yards for Washington during the preseason. He’s spent the season on the team’s practice squad.

AP

Thirty-one years to the month after the Immaculate Reception, the Steelers nearly crafted an NFL version of the “band is on the field!” play, if only receiver Antonio Brown had managed to stay on the field himself.

And if Brown hadn’t stepped slightly out of bounds only 13 yards from paydirt, the outcome would have become nearly as controversial as the Bradshaw-to-Tatum-to-Franco-possibly-by-way-of-Fuqua touchdown in the postseason.

One of the various pitches on the play included a lateral from quarterback Ben Roethlisberger that initially appeared to be an illegal forward pass.  On Tuesday, NFL V.P. of officiating Dean Blandino said on NFL Network that the ruling on the field of a lateral would have survived replay review, given the lack of indisputable visual evidence to the contrary.

This assumes, of course, that the referee John Parry wouldn’t have pulled a Triplette when reviewing the play.

The far more impressive bit of officiating came from field judge Scott Edwards, who remained in proper position throughout the chaos of the final play, saw Brown’s left foot land slightly out of bounds, and blew the play dead.

Making Edwards’ decision even more gutsy was the absence of the safety net of replay to overturn an erroneous call.  While the failure to blow the whistle could have been corrected after the fact, if Edwards were wrong he would have been solely responsible for swiping a season-saving win from the Steelers.

In a year featuring so many high-profile officiating mistakes, Edwards deserves credit for getting a big call in a big spot right, and for having the nerve to be true to what he saw.

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With injuries leaving the New York Giants shorthanded at running back, the team turned back to Brandon Jacobs to bail them out back in September.

Now Jacobs’ season is over.

According to Ebenezer Samuel of the New York Daily News, the Giants have placed Jacobs on injured reserve.

Jacobs’ marquee performance in his return to New York came against the Chicago Bears in October. Jacobs carried 22 times for 106 yards and two touchdowns against the Bears. For the season, Jacobs appeared in seven games with one start. He carried 58 times for 238 yards and four touchdowns. He leads the Giants in rushing touchdowns.

Jacobs has been battling injuries to his knee and hamstring in recent weeks and didn’t play int he team’s last two games before being placed on injured reserve.

The Giants are signing linebacker Marcus Dowtin off their practice squad to replace Jacobs on the active roster.

AP

Every member of the Dallas Cowboys’ defense probably had some soul-searching to do after allowing the Chicago Bears to score on every offensive possession (barring a final kneel down) on Monday night.

The Cowboys allowed Josh McCown to throw for 348 yards with four touchdowns and a rushing touchdown in a 45-28 loss to the Bears.

The Dallas defense has struggled all season. They are allowing 427 yards a game – most in the league. It’s been a collective failure by the Cowboys defense but linebacker DeMarcus Ware is placing some of the blame on his shoulders as well. According to Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com, Ware says he isn’t playing up to the standard he’s expected throughout his career.

“At the end of the day I haven’t been playing like the DeMarcus of the past and I got to get back to that,” Ware said. It’s December (and) people always say the light turns on in December and you set yourself apart from everybody and I got to get back on track with that.”

Ware has managed just six sacks and 30 tackles on the season. His lowest career sack total was eight as a rookie in 2005 and lowest tackle output was 56 last season. He’s on pace to fall short of those marks in both categories this year.

Ware may be having a sub-par season by his standards, but he certainly isn’t alone in that regard in Dallas.

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The strong debut season for 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick has allowed him to cash in off the field, even if he has yet to cash in on the field.

Among other things, Kaepernick has a deal with Beats by Dre headphones.  In a new commercial advertising the noise-canceling qualities of the latest model, Kaepernick rides on the team bus while a variety of apparent Seahawks fans yell and scream and give him the finger and shout apparent obscenities and actually urinate on the bus.

While the words Seattle and/or Seahawks never appear, many of the fans are clad in the team’s distinctive colors.

As explained by John Boyle of the Everett (Wash.) Daily Herald, Seahawks fans aren’t happy.  And they shouldn’t be.

It’s one thing to paint a fan base as passionate.  It’s quite another to characterize them as a bunch of lunatics.

Especially when Seahawks fans ideally will be buying the headphones, too.

Here’s the ad.  Draw your own conclusions.  Then make your comments below.

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As the Redskins continue to reel from a stream of reports regarding dysfunction in the organization, questions persist regarding the source(s) of the stories.

Veteran receiver Santana Moss strongly believes that the leaks aren’t coming from the locker room.

“We’ve talked about it as a team, and since Coach Shanahan’s been here, we haven’t had that problem, so I don’t understand this year why there’s a problem with people getting our information that we hadn’t had a problem with,” Moss told LaVar Arrington and Chad Dukes of 106.7 The Fan in D.C. “I remember before we had a lot of those guys, and I don’t think we have a lot of those guys on the team no more. We clearly don’t have a lot of those old players on the team anymore, so it. . . .”

“So it’s not players then,” Arrington said.

“I don’t know where it’s coming from,” Moss said. “It can’t be players.”

“So it’s coaches,” Lavar asked. “I mean I’m not putting words in your mouth, but I’m saying, I’m taking and owning that, that it’s gotta be coaches because [Shanahan's] job is on the line this year.  It didn’t happen last year because his job wasn’t on the line last year. It didn’t happen the year before that because his job wasn’t on the line.”

“To be honest with you, this is the ultimate highest that I can rank anything, because I’ve never been a part of anything to the point that, you know, you just see it ripping away,” Moss said earlier in the segment regarding the current environment within the team.  “Every moment you get, it’s more, it’s more, you know like, you’re able to deal with so much as a player, especially when it’s not containing you.  So you kind brush a lot of things away but, when it’s like okay, I brushed that away, now you’re bringing back more.”

The things Arrington said, and the things Moss didn’t say, mesh with the widespread belief in league circles that the latest, and most jarring, report was leaked to ESPN by coach Mike Shanahan or someone close to him. And that has set the stage for the sudden game of chicken between Shanahan and owner Daniel Snyder, with Shanahan apparently wanting to be fired so that he can collect $7 million for 2014 and Snyder wanting Shanahan to quit so that the team will owe Shanahan nothing.

AP

Bears receiver Brandon Marshall says he knew during pregame warmups that the Cowboys couldn’t handle the bitter Chicago cold on Monday night.

“We beat Dallas last night before the game started,” Marshall said on ESPN 1000. “When it was [receiver] Alshon [Jeffery], myself, Earl Bennett and some of the other guys outside warming up pregame, there was only a handful of Dallas players. I looked around and I said, ‘Man, we’ve got these guys.’”

Marshall said players on the Bears went about pregame warmups as usual without thinking about the cold, while players on the Cowboys appeared to prefer staying in the locker room and dread going out into the cold.

“The elements were already in their heads,” Marshall said. “So pregame, I believe that we won. I’m pretty sure there [would have been] more guys out there if it wasn’t colder, but they weren’t out there. For us, once you start putting on sleeves and start doing things differently, you buy into the elements and the game is over.”

Dealing with the weather was particularly important during this chilly weekend in the NFL. The Bears looked a lot more comfortable in it than the Cowboys.

AP

Typically, NFL owners don’t say anything about a coach’s employment status until it changes, either via a contract extension or a termination.

Tommy Smith, who has assumed control of the Titans after the passing of his father-in-law, Bud Adams, is publicly talking about the decision Smith soon must make about coach Mike Munchak.

“It’s awful,” Smith tells Jim Wyatt of the Tennessean.  “I have known Mike for 30 years, and it’s hard to find someone of higher character, with greater integrity than Mike Munchak.  He is a very intelligent guy and a good man.  We would like things to work out for Mike in that capacity.”

Smith seems to be willing to be less impulsive when it comes to the head coach than Smith’s predecessor may have been.

“Bud in the past would fire people at the drop of a hat,” Smith said.  “I think sometimes you need to keep the gun in the holster. . . .  I think we need to sit here and look at these three weeks, and let’s play hard.  Let’s see if we can win some games.  When we sit down with Mike at the end of the season I expect Mike to come in and tell me why he thinks we’re in the position we are, what he thinks needs to be done for us to improve.

“This thing didn’t fall apart overnight, and it’s not going to be put together overnight either.  But we certainly had higher expectations than what we are seeing right now, across the board, I can assure you of that.  Now let’s see if we can win three in a row.”

Smith praised Munchak, who has been employed by the franchise for more than three decades, for keeping his team focused and motivated.

“If there is anything that is a bright light, I believe the players are still playing hard for Mike, and I think that is a testimony to his character,” Smith said.  “A lot of these other teams are not.  We just need to finish out the season the best we can and then we’ll evaluate and see where things stand.”

At a time when few employees stay in the same place 30 months, here’s hoping that the man who has been with the Titans and Oilers for more than 30 years gets some more time to turn around a team that hasn’t had a true franchise quarterback since Steve McNair.

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Broncos receiver Wes Welker sustained a concussion on Sunday night, his second in two games.  With the team’s next game coming up on Thursday night against the Chargers, few believe he’ll play.

While Welker may not play, he hasn’t been ruled out, yet.

“Our big concern is just his health and it’s in the hands of the medical people,” coach John Fox said Tuesday, via quotes distributed by the team.  “If he’s available we’ll use him.  If not, he’ll be out.”

Fox doesn’t believe the short week necessarily requires the Broncos to shut him down.

“I’m not super educated on it but I think their protocol doesn’t take into effect the day of the game or how much time,” Fox said.  “It’s just whether they clear him and he passed the necessary test or not.”

Fox is right, but it takes time for a brain injury to heal.  When a player has two of them only three weeks apart, it’s hard to imagine the player returning after only three days off.

Still, Welker has not yet been cleared to practice.  It’s hard to envision Welker being cleared to play in only two more days.

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On Monday, Redskins coach Mike Shanahan said he’d let the media know “in the next couple of days” whether quarterback Robert Griffin III will remain the starter for the rest of the season.

As of Tuesday night, Shanahan has said nothing.  To anyone.

Jeff Darlington of NFL Network reports that, as of 6:30 p.m. ET, Shanahan has not informed Griffin about his status for Sunday at Atlanta.

A league source confirms to PFT that the Redskins are holding the info close to the vest for now.

They can’t do it much longer.  Even if Shanahan decides to renege on his promise to reveal the decision “in the next couple of days,” word will emerge after practice on Wednesday, when Griffin or Kirk Cousins take the first-team reps.

Now that owner Daniel Snyder reportedly has called Shanahan’s bluff, the head coach has to decide whether he’ll go through with his potential plan, which would open Shanahan up to even more criticism regarding what appears to be a blatant effort to get fired and get paid for 2014.

And while on the surface Snyder can pretend he doesn’t care if Griffin doesn’t play in three meaningless games, a strong showing by Cousins down the stretch could create an unwanted quarterback controversy among fans who possibly have begun the process of falling out of love with RGIII.

AP

At a time when Redskins owner Daniel Snyder may be thinking about the next high-profile coach he’ll overpay to underachieve, Nick Saban would like to remind Snyder and the rest of us that Saban is still coaching.

Gil Brandt of NFL.com tweets that he’s been told by a source that Saban currently is in negotiations with Alabama regarding a contract extension that would pay him in the range of $7 million per year.

Coincidentally (or not), current Redskins coach Mike Shanahan currently earns $7 million per year.

The more likely explanation for this latest development is that word of the potential extension was leaked by Saban or someone close to Saban to a member of the media with close ties to the University of Texas as a message to the Longhorns, who are believed to be interested in hiring Saban.  But Brandt also has close ties to the NFL, which makes us wonder whether Snyder is one of the intended recipients of Saban’s message.

Why wouldn’t Snyder be interested in Saban?  Sure, he burned out after two years in Miami because a little thing called the salary cap prevented him from over-recruiting the most talented players in the nation and then lining them up and letting them win championships.  (Besides, NFL kickers are way better at making 57-yard field goals.)  No numbers of crystal footballs will soothe Saban’s lingering torment over the perception that he couldn’t get it done at the highest level of the sport.

The key for Saban would be negotiating a contract that gives him as much power in the NFL as he enjoys in a town he runs called Tuscaloosa, with enough extra money to make up for the fact that he’d to deal with a far more zealous and independent press corps in D.C.  So if $7 million per year keeps him in Alabama, what would lure him back to the NFL?

$8 million plus total control of the football operations and a promise from Snyder to stay out of the building?

$10 million plus full control?

Surely, there’s a number and a set of terms that will get Saban’s attention.  But first, Saban has to get Snyder’s attention.

Mission accomplished.

AP

Philadelphia police are investigating after a Lions fan said he was attacked by a group of Eagles fans after Sunday’s game.

Police told the Associated Press that a 33-year-old man wearing a Lions hat and jersey was assaulted while leaving Lincoln Financial Field after the Eagles beat the Lions on Sunday.

The fan told the Philadelphia Inquirer that because he was wearing a Barry Sanders jersey, Eagles fans pelted him with snowballs throughout the game, and that as he left after the game, a group of six men surrounded him and screamed at him.

“I was like, ‘Are you guys serious? You won, enjoy it,’” the man said.

Instead, he says, the group of Eagles fans attacked him, punched him, choked him and knocked him unconscious.

Philadelphia police say they are searching for surveillance video that may help identify anyone involved in the attack, and they are asking witnesses to come forward.

AP

With Jason Campbell and Brandon Weeden both battling concussions last week, the Browns signed Caleb Hanie to serve as a possible quarterback for their game against the Patriots.

Campbell got cleared by doctors and made the start in the 27-26 lead and it appears Weeden is also doing better because the Browns announced that they have released Hanie. If Weeden is cleared to return this week, he’ll serve as Campbell’s backup and Alex Tanney will continue in the No. 3 role.

The Browns filled Hanie’s roster spot by signing running back Edwin Baker off of the Texans practice squad. Baker was a seventh-round pick of the Chargers in 2012 and spent most of the season on their practice squad. He was on the Broncos practice squad this year before moving on to Houston and, now, Cleveland.

Willis McGahee suffered a concussion during the loss to the Patriots so Baker could wind up active this week as a backup to Chris Ogbonnaya and Fozzy Whittaker.

AP

Two years ago, Wade Phillips passed on the chance to interview for the head-coaching position in Tampa.  That doesn’t mean the three-time former head coach doesn’t want to be the next head coach of the Texans.

Phillips has made it clear that he’s interested in removing the “interim” label from the job he inherited after Gary Kubiak was fired last week.  In fact, Phillips won’t say that he’s willing to remain as the team’s defensive coordinator, if someone else gets the coaching job.

“I would never say that, because then they wouldn’t hire you as the head coach,” Phillips said Monday, via John McClain of the Houston Chronicle.  “I’m not going to fall for that one.”

Appearing on Tuesday’s PFT Live, McClain said that he doesn’t believe Phillips will be viewed as a serious candidate for the job.  If, however, the team can break an eleven-game losing streak and win the next three games, Phillips’ candidacy could gain some steam.

McClain also said that G.M. Rick Smith remains entirely safe, and that any candidate who is offered the job but who doesn’t want Smith setting the table will not be the next coach of the team.

Another intriguing topic — what will the Texans do if they “earn” the first overall pick in the draft?  Though some have dismissed the possibility that McNair would want Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel, McClain thinks McNair would have no qualms about adding the 2012 Heisman winner to the team, if his stock rises to the point where the pick is justified.

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There may not be a hotter seat in the NFL right now than the one under Redskins coach Mike Shanahan.

The question that must be answered is whether Shanahan is providing the flame himself. We’ll discuss that on Pro Football Talk on NBCSN on Tuesday in an attempt to make heads or tails of what’s gone on in Washington over the last few days. The rest of the vulnerable coaches will also be up for discussion during our weekly temperature check of the coaching ranks.

We’ll also have a look at the power rankings for this week. The Seahawks weren’t shaken from their perch at the top by last weekend’s loss, but the conversation will cover which other teams are moving up and down the list with just a few weeks left in the regular season.

It all gets started at 5:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN.