Sports Then and Now

Drew Brees celebrates with teammate, Devery Henderson after he threw a record-breaking touchdown pass on Sunday. Bress now has a TD pass in 48 straight games – breaking the record set by Johnny Unitas.

As always, it was another exciting week in the NFL with records being broken, upsets being recorded and Tim Tebow leading the Jets to a win. Well, two out of three ain’t bad.

Nevertheless, it was still another very exciting week in football that made us fans all grateful that we get to watch the game every week – and that the replacement referees are gone for good.

Now’s the part when I reminisce about both the good and the bad that the games had to offer.

First and foremost, Saints quarterback, Drew Brees threw a touchdown pass in his 48th straight game – a new NFL record. The previous record was 47 held by Johnny Unitas. The record-breaking pass was one of four for him on the night and came in the 1st quarter to Devery Henderson from 40 yards out. More importantly, the Saints picked up their first win of the season, 31-24 over the Chargers.

Five teams did not allow a touchdown in their Week 5 games. It’s not surprising that three of them were the Ravens, 49ers and Bears. It is surprising, however, that the other two were the Rams and the Chiefs. The Chiefs were the only team to not allow a touchdown and lose the game. The Ravens beat them, without scoring a touchdown, 9-6.

Two teams – the Bears and the 49ers won by more than 38 points. The 49ers beat the Bills 45-3 and the Bears crushed the Jaguars 41-3.

The Cardinals suffered their first loss of the year, falling to the Rams 17-3 on Thursday night.

San Francisco set a franchise record with 621 yards of total offense in their win against Buffalo. It was also the most yards that the Bills have ever given up. Alex Smith threw for 303 yards and three TD’s. The Bills also became the first team to allow 550+ yards of offense in consecutive weeks since 1950.

The Bears recorded an interception return in their third straight game for the first time in their history. Charles Tillman returned a Blaine Gabbert pick 36 yards in the 2nd quarter to make the score 13-3 Bears.

The Patriots scored 3+ rushing touchdowns in consecutive games for the first time since 1978. Touchdowns were scored by Shane Vereen, Stevan Ridley and Tom Brady. Brady also threw a touchdown pass in his 38th straight game – remaining ten behind Brees for the all-time record.

Green Bay blew an 18-point halftime lead to the Colts and lost the game 30-27. Andrew Luck threw two touchdowns and Reggie Wayne had 212 yards receiving as the Pack blew their largest halftime lead since 1957.

In case you were wondering, the Browns are still winless. They fell to 0-6 after blowing a 14-0 lead against the Super Bowl Champion Giants. Dating back to last season, Cleveland has now lost 11 straight which is tied for the longest losing streak in its franchise history. On the bright side, rookie running back, Trent Richardson, recorded  a rushing touchdown in his fourth straight game.

Read the rest of this entry →

On January 21, 1992, 34-year-old Bill Cowher was hired as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers after serving for three seasons as the defensive coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs.

Cowher had the difficult task of replacing legendary head coach Chuck Noll, who complied over 200 victories and four Super Bowl championships in his 23-year tenure in Pittsburgh.

But the first-time head coach led the Steelers to an 11-5 record in his first season and the AFC Central Division title, the first time Pittsburgh had won more than 10 games since 1983 and first division title since 1984.

Then in his fourth season, Cowher took the Steelers to their first Super Bowl in 16 years as he directed Pittsburgh to Super Bowl XXX, only to fall short of the NFL championship as the Steelers were defeated by the Dallas Cowboys by the score of 27-17.

After three more losses in the AFC Championship Game, Cowher and the Steelers returned to the Super Bowl in 2005 after winning three postseason games on the road to advance to Super Bowl XL where they faced off with the Seattle Seahawks.

Thanks to a 75-yard touchdown run and a 43-yard touchdown pass from wide receiver Antawn Randle El to Hines Ward, the Steelers defeated Seattle 21-10 for the team’s first Vince Lombardi Trophy in 26 years and give Cowher the elusive Super Bowl title he had been seeking since he became the Pittsburgh head coach in 1992.

Some experts thought Cowher would join running back Jerome Bettis in retirement after the Steelers’ championship, but Cowher returned to Pittsburgh for his 15th season, in hopes of leading the Steelers to a second straight Super Bowl title.

But the Steelers got off to a rough start as they lost six of their first eight games of the season for a 2-6 record and though they would win five of the next six games, the Steelers would not return to the postseason as they were eliminated from playoff contention after a Week 16 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

Following the loss to the Ravens, rumors began to swirl that the Steelers finale against the Cincinnati Bengals would be the final game of Cowher’s career as the head coach in Pittsburgh. Read the rest of this entry →

When he was selected as the #1 overall pick of the 2003 NFL Draft, Carson Palmer was destined to be the savior for the Cincinnati Bengals.

Ever since a 9-7 season and an AFC Central title in 1990, the Bengals did not have a winning season for the next 12 years and had nine seasons with at least 10 losses.

However, the 2003 NFL season brought hope as first-year head coach Marvin Lewis led the Bengals to an 8-8 record with Palmer not starting a single game during the season as he watched Jon Kitna take the reins.

But for the 2004 season, Palmer was given the starting job and led the Bengals and had started all 11 games as Cincinnati was a respectable 5-6 when they traveled to Baltimore to take on their divisional rival, the Baltimore Ravens.

The Ravens entered the game with a 7-4 record and needing a win to increase their chances of obtaining an AFC Wild Card berth.

The Ravens were still led by their defense that had led them to a Super Bowl title in 2000, but were hoping that they had found their franchise quarterback in Kyle Boller, who was also selected in the first round of the 2003 NFL Draft.

Unlike Palmer, Boller started several games in his rookie season until a thigh injury suffered in the ninth game of the season, knocked him out for the rest of the season.

However, the Ravens still made the playoffs with a 10-6 record and Boller was back as the Ravens’ starting quarterback for the 2004 season, where he started every game when going into the Ravens’ match-up with the Bengals. Read the rest of this entry →