Strangeness in Seattle
SEATTLE Nate Burleson didn't bury his head or hide from his teammates. Instead, he stood on the sideline and cheered on his defensive teammates, greatly hoping they would help absolve him from being the game's goat.
"After something like that happened, I wanted to yell as hard as I (could) and hopefully give them a little something extra," the Seattle Seahawks wide receiver said, referring to the sequence in which his misjudged kickoff resulted in a free ball recovered by the Washington Redskins at the Seahawks' 13-yard line with 12:36 remaining. "They did the job."
Whether Seattle's defense should get a majority of the credit for forcing the Redskins to kick a short field goal or thank their lucky stars Shaun Suisham missed the 30-yarder that would have extended the visitors' lead is up for debate. Regardless, Seattle caught a big break early in the fourth quarter of Saturday's 35-14 NFC wild-card victory over the Redskins at Qwest Field that sends the Seahawks to the second round of the playoffs for a tilt at the Green Bay Packers on Jan. 12.
"The missed field goal was a key momentum change that would have given them just a little bit bigger lead. It would have had them believing that much more," Seahawks defensive end Patrick Kerney said. "(That miss) really fed us a great deal of energy and a great deal of emotion. From that point on, things went well, and we just took control of the game."
Kerney is right on at least the first half of the equation.
"It's our destiny. This is about to go our way," Redskins linebacker London Fletcher thought when Anthony Mix recovered the kickoff after Santana Moss' 30-yard touchdown reception had given Washington a 14-13 lead. "We're about to take this game over. We're going to Dallas."
Exactly what happened to make Fletcher and his teammates think they were destined to continue their season-ending surge that began shortly after the shooting death of safety Sean Taylor was something Burleson still couldn't explain after the game.
"I don't want to blame it on the wind," Burleson said. "It just seemed like it hung up there a long time and then dropped down. Once I realized I couldn't get to it, I tried to catch myself and catch it off the bounce, but it was coming down too fast and went over my head."
Perhaps more inexplicable than the free ball situation that Washington squandered was a miscommunication between quarterback Todd Collins and Moss that led to the first of two interception returns for touchdowns by the Seahawks.
On first-and-10 after Seattle had moved ahead 21-14 with a Matt Hasselbeck scoring strike to Burleson, the Redskins called for a "pump" on the outside to Moss. What happened between the throw and Seahawks cornerback Marcus Trufant waltzing into the end zone is somewhat of a mystery.
Moss came off the snap and cut inside. He then broke toward the sideline. With the ball in the air, just floating toward the sideline, the receiver stopped.
"I just thought it was a dead play," Moss said. "I looked back and I'm not hearing nothing. I'm not seeing anything. At the last minute, I just see the guy catch the ball."
Trufant did indeed catch the ball – and moved toward putting an end to Washington's miraculous run. While Moss and the Redskins were a little slow to react, Trufant headed the other way, getting enough blockers along his journey to comfortably put Seattle ahead 28-14 with 5:39 left.
"I didn't really see it. I was on my back when the ball was in the air," said Collins, throwing his first two interceptions this season after replacing an injured Jason Campbell in Week 14 against the Chicago Bears.
For the Redskins, it was the beginning of the end of a four-game winning streak that saw them overcome a 5-7 mark and beat long odds to reach the postseason. For Seattle, it marked the second year in a row that a home loss was a very real fourth-quarter possibility before something strange happened to keep its season alive.
Almost a year ago to the day, Seattle clung to a one-point lead as the Cowboys lined up for a go-ahead field goal with 1:19 left. And as has been well-documented, Tony Romo mishandled the snap, preserving the Seahawks' lead and securing the victory for Seattle.
One year later, the Seahawks are poised to rewrite a bit of their own playoff history.
"I'll just say it right now," Hasselbeck said from the podium, smiling, as he looked at the media members Saturday. "We want the ball, and we're gonna score."
Hasselbeck was referring to the infamous statement he uttered following the overtime coin flip of the first-round playoff loss to the Packers four years ago.
No question, Burleson and the defense are ready to back him up.
Copyright 2008 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
Patriots LB Junior Seau returns to playoffs after 12-year absence
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) -- Junior Seau was hurt. The cart came out to take him off the field. Would the inspirational leader return?
Seau was with San Diego then and Rodney Harrison figured his teammate was finished.
"I thought he was probably lost for the season," said Harrison, now in his second year playing with Seau on the Patriots. "He comes back five plays later. First play back, he goes and gets a sack and he gets up and he's cheering. He's pumping that arm and it was pretty amazing.
"That just sums up Junior right there. You can never count him out."
Not when he finished the 2004 and 2005 seasons on injured reserve with Miami. Not when he announced his retirement after that. Not even when he reversed that decision four days later to play for New England in 2006.
And not when he ended that season early with more pain -- a broken arm sidelined him after the 11th game.
So on Saturday night, Seau will use his energy and ability to try to extend the Patriots' unbeaten season in a divisional playoff game against Jacksonville.
Just seven days before his 39th birthday, one of the greatest linebackers in NFL history will be back in the playoffs for the first time in 13 years.
Others may have wondered why Seau kept coming back. He listened only to himself.
"I never doubt myself playing the game of football. One thing I've always said to not only myself, but people around and in the locker room," he said Wednesday, "is never allow the world to put barriers on you as a person, or as a player, or as a human being, as to what you should be doing, what you should be saying at any age you may be.
"And I never allowed that to happen."
Seau was the fifth pick in the 1990 draft out of Southern California, the school where Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio also played linebacker just six years earlier. From 1991-2002, Seau was selected for 12 straight Pro Bowls.
The Super Bowl in his fifth season is a less pleasant memory. San Diego was routed by San Francisco 49-26. It was a dark day for Seau, even though he had 11 tackles and a sack.
"As a professional athlete, to go in there and compete at the high level that you had hoped to and to go out there and have it handed to you on national TV as the world was watching, it was embarrassing," he said. "I've always dreamt to have another opportunity and another chance, and that's why I'm here."
He played in just one more playoff game the following season and the Chargers lost 35-20 to Pittsburgh despite Seau's 11 tackles and an interception. The Chargers didn't have a winning record in any of his remaining seven seasons there. He spent the next three seasons in Miami and was part of just one winning team.
With all the individual accolades, there was an empty spot in his career: team success.
"Whenever you get into the playoffs and when you gain success early, as a human being, you think it's easy and it's going to come back again," Seau said. "But it doesn't always work that way.'
He had another chance when Patriots coach Bill Belichick, with three of his linebackers injured, wanted an intelligent veteran before last season. Seau came out of his brief retirement -- he called it a graduation -- and started 10 of 11 games he played before being hurt.
This season, he didn't start any of the first 12 games, but played a lot as part of a five-man linebacker rotation. But when Rosevelt Colvin went on injured reserve, Seau started the last four games at inside linebacker.
"Every time we go in the huddle, he has an energy and a presence about him that's pretty much nonstop," Belichick said. "I think he's obviously one of the most respected players in the league, certainly on this team. He has a good message and people listen to him."
He couldn't deliver that message on the field last season, when the Patriots blew a 21-3 lead and lost the AFC championship to Indianapolis, 38-34. He couldn't bear to watch and went surfing in San Diego, his hometown.
On Saturday night there's no other place he'd rather be than Gillette Stadium -- yapping in the huddle, charging at the quarterback and slamming running backs to the ground.
"I'm not here for anything else," he said. "I'm not here to practice. I'm not here to go to meetings. It's a great game, and I do love the game, but you would love to finish it the way you dreamt of finishing it when you were a kid."
If the Patriots beat the Jaguars to go 17-0, he'll have another chance in the AFC championship game the following Sunday, the day after his 39th birthday.
Until then, he'll keep showing up before most of his teammates and studying as much film as he can. Harrison once arrived before 6 a.m. and found Seau already working out.
"The guy practices harder than anyone I've ever seen," Harrison said. "That just shows that he isn't taking anything for granted. He knows this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
"He walked away from the game and he came back. He had the opportunity, got hurt last year, and now he's taking advantage of it and making the most of it."
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Ogden could be playing finale with Ravens on Sunday
OWINGS MILLS, Md. -- When Jonathan Ogden walks onto the field Sunday, he will be honored as one of three Baltimore Ravens selected to play in the Pro Bowl.
When the 6-foot-9, 345-pound offensive tackle walks off three hours later, it just might be for the last time.
Ogden will decide during the offseason if he wants to retire or return for a 13th NFL season. He faced a similar decision after the 2006 season before finally opting to come back.
"It's pretty much the same: How healthy do I feel; is the love and passion still there to be able to do it for a full season; what I think about where the team is headed. I'll just kind of examine those things," Ogden said Wednesday.
The main difference this time is that a year ago the Ravens went 13-3 and figured to be at least as good in 2007. Now they're 4-11 and will bring a nine-game losing streak into the finale against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
"Right now I just need a little time," Ogden said. "After a year like this, people who have played one year don't want to come back. So you want to get away from it before you figure anything out."
The losses have been difficult to take. The pain that comes from being a 33-year-old lineman has been even tougher to handle.
Ogden spent much of the offseason recovering from a hyperextended big toe, then aggravated the injury in the opening game. He sat out the next five weeks before returning, but the toe still doesn't feel right.
If Ogden knew now that he would be forced to battle injuries again in 2008, then he would already be making plans for his retirement.
"There hasn't been a day this year I haven't been in the training room. That gets a little frustrating," he said. "I have to get healthy. That's the thing right now. Everyone knows about the toe, but there are so many other things that are nagging. I see what they mean about when you get older; things just linger and nag more. That's just one of the things I'm battling with, physically and mentally."
As evidenced by his 11th consecutive Pro Bowl bid, Ogden still can obliterate oncoming defense tackles or linebackers. The question is, does he still want to dedicate himself to doing what it takes?
"Everybody enjoys playing," Ravens coach Brian Billick said. "It's, 'Do I want to do these things in the upcoming offseason that I know I have to do to continue to play at a high level?'
"I think that's usually what the question always comes down to for an athlete at this point in his career going forward," the coach said. "So, he'll have to address that. And that's not a question he'll have an answer for two days, three days, three weeks or a month after the season, I wouldn't think."
It's not a question Ogden can answer now. So when he's introduced Sunday before the home fans, he will take it all in with the understanding that it just might be the last time.
"It will be great," Ogden mused. "Eleven times going to Hawaii, playing on this one team. Going out against the Steelers. No matter what, I'll remember this one."
There will come a time Sunday when Ogden will wonder if it is indeed his final game. As is his practice, though, he will focus first on winning.
"I'm just going to go out there and try to do what I do, try to have some fun. I'll worry about everything else later," he said. "If this is the last one, it's been a good ride."
Billick won't attempt to influence Ogden's decision, but he knows the Ravens are a better team with him than without him.
"Regardless of what he wants to do, coaching Jonathan Ogden has been one of the highlights of my professional career," Billick said. "To be around a bona fide, guaranteed, first-ballot, Hall of Famer -- you don't get that opportunity all that often."
Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press
Undrafted free agent Peters defies odds in making first Pro Bowl
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) -- Jason Peters' rise to the upper echelon of offensive linemen almost never happened.
An undrafted free agent signed in 2004, the 6-foot-4, 340-pound Peters was almost too flexible for his own good. Because of his unique blend of size, strength and agility, he always seemed to have problems finding an ideal position. Now Buffalo's mammoth left tackle has been selected to his first Pro Bowl.
"Sometimes you can be too versatile that they can't find a spot for you, but I kept pushing," said Peters, the first Bills offensive lineman since Ruben Brown in 2003, and first offensive tackle since Howard Ballard in 1993, to be headed to the Pro Bowl. "I just go out and try to get better than I was the day before."
Peters began his collegiate career at Arkansas as a defensive end before he was switched to tight end. As a rookie, he was used on special teams and as a tight end in goal line situations before permanently making the move to offensive line at training camp prior to the 2005 season.
That's when Peters asked former head coach Mike Mularkey to "put me in a spot and keep me there."
He made the switch for me and put me on the field," Peters said of Mularkey, who coached the Bills for two seasons starting in 2004.
Peters moved last year from right tackle to left tackle after a shuffling of the Bills offensive line during a bye week, officially putting an end to the myriad roles he's undertaken the past several years as a pro and college player.
"Jason's a tremendous story," coach Dick Jauron said. "He's very talented and very driven to be the best."
"He's got outstanding size, he's got tremendous athletic ability, and he's nasty," offensive line coach Jim McNally said. "He's got quick feet, balance ... you name it, he's got all those skills."
McNally thinks so much of Peters that he compared him to another great tackle he coached in Cincinnati, Hall of Fame left tackle Anthony Munoz.
"(Peters) is 50 pounds heavier and just as fast," McNally said. "If he continues on his roll he can be as good as anyone who has ever played. This is only his second full year of starting, so I think his progress is right on schedule."
Peters anchors a revamped Bills offensive line that has steadily improved this season. The group of Peters, Melvin Fowler, Derrick Dockery, Brad Butler and Langston Walker has not allowed a sack in three consecutive games, tying a team record. And rookie running back Marshawn Lynch is only 60 yards away from 1,000 for the season despite missing three games because of an ankle injury.
"He's been doing his thing this whole year," Lynch said. "He's been taking care of me. He probably wants to see me get this 1,000 more than I want to get this 1,000. He's stayed on me about it, week in and week out, asking me, 'How close are we to it?' So I'm glad for him."
"I think he's one of the best athletes in the league," added Lynch's backup, Fred Jackson. "He's always going to take care of his guy, so you never have to worry about him."
Peters got attention in his rookie year when he blocked a punt in a game against the Bengals and recovered the loose ball in the end zone for his first career touchdown. He added his first career TD reception in the 2005 season opener against Houston on a tackle-eligible play before starting the first of nine straight games at right tackle against New England in Week 8 after Mike Williams was injured.
"He's totally gifted. He's quick as a cat and strong as an ox," McNally said. "There's no ceiling."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Falcons waive RB Pinner
FLOWERY BRANCH, GEORGIA (TICKER) -- The Atlanta Falcons waived running back Artose Pinner on Wednesday.
A five-year veteran, the 29-year-old Pinner played in six games for Atlanta this season, gaining 46 yards on five carries.
Pinner's best season came as a member of the Detroit Lions in 2005, when he carried 106 times for 349 yards and three touchdowns in 16 games.
Overall, the 5-10, 232-pound tailback has ran for 858 yards anad eight TDs on 250 carries in 46 career games with the Lions, Minnesota Vikings and Falcons.
The Falcons also signed free-agent offensive tackle Pat McCoy on Wednesday. The 6-5, 328-pound McCoy spent the last two seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles after being signed as an undrafted rookie free agent in 2006 out of West Texas A&M.
Copyright 2007 PA SportsTicker. All Rights Reserved
Rams' Frerotte has shoulder injury
ST. LOUIS (TICKER) -- The St. Louis Rams' quarterback situation is as unsettled as ever.
Gus Frerotte has a partially torn labrum in his throwing shoulder and is expected to miss Sunday's game against the Cinncinati Bengals, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Tuesday.
With Marc Bulger recovering from a concussion, Frerotte started last week's game against the Atlanta Falcons but suffered a shoulder injury late in the third quarter.
Frerotte stayed in the game and passed for 311 yards and three touchdowns in the Rams' 28-16 victory. His injury, however, appears to be more serious than originally thought.
The Rams hope Bulger, who suffered the concussion against Seattle on November 25, can return this week but he first must pass a neuropsych test scheduled for Tuesday.
If Bulger does not get clearance, the Rams' offense could be in the hands of third-string quarterback Brock Berlin, a third-year player out of Miami who never has played in an NFL game.
Rams coach Scott Linehan is optimistic Bulger will be able to play against the Bengals.
"I think he's a lot better," Linehan said. "I thought he was way better by the end of (last) the week. He seemed very much himself this weekend and again I am hopeful."
Bulger has endured an injury-plagued season, also missing two games with broken ribs.
Copyright 2007 PA SportsTicker. All Rights Reserved
Williamson misses practice with headaches, Peterson getting used to knee brace
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. (AP) -- Minnesota Vikings receiver Troy Williamson missed practice on Thursday with headaches stemming from a concussion he sustained against the New York Giants last week.
Williamson practiced on Wednesday after being cleared by doctors but said the headaches grew worse on Thursday, so he sat out as a precaution. He said he will take it day by day and see if he is ready for this week's game against Detroit.
Running back Adrian Peterson again split time with Chester Taylor in practice and said he is still getting used to wearing a brace to protect his right knee. Peterson tore the lateral collateral ligament in his right knee three weeks ago at Green Bay.
"It really took me I would say like a good week just to really get used to it," Peterson said before practice on Thursday. "It was kind of stiff at first but I really have worked into it. The brace is starting to mold over my leg and my knee so I am feeling more comfortable with it."
Peterson has never worn a knee brace before, and coach Brad Childress said his star "fiddles with it continuously. ... It's not natural."
Peterson, who leads the league in rushing despite missing the last two games, said he is still breaking in the brace, but so far has been able to run and cut without much of a problem. He figures to rejoin the team on Sunday against the Lions, though no official announcement has been made yet.
"Right now I feel like I will be able to go out and play," said Peterson, who lobbied the coaches to activate him last week against the Giants. "I am just going to continue to take it one day at a time and see how it feels during practice and after practice, and I will have to be able to make that decision this weekend."
Safety Tank Williams (knee) missed his second straight day of practice, while cornerback Antoine Winfield (hamstring), fullback Tony Richardson (knee), center Matt Birk (knee) and linebacker Dontarrious Thomas (groin) were limited.
Defensive end Kenechi Udeze returned to practice after missing Wednesday because of the birth of his daughter, Bailey.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.
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