The Houndie is an award formerly known as the Buckeye NFLer of the Week. After 2 years of existence, we searched for a catchier name, so with the help of a well placed typo and the ensuing 11W comments, the current title was created.
Thursday night’s action was over by halftime and even though Troy Smith was benched a couple of weeks ago, Ted Ginn got plenty of action on returns in San Diego’s 34-7 win. Ginn returned 7 kickoffs for an average of 16.6 yards, never breaking one for longer than 22 yards. His best return was a 23 yarder off a punt late in the first, setting up the Niners at their 42. On the defensive side, Nate Clements had 7 solo tackles, including 1 for a loss.
The Rams are still sitting tied for first in the West, at 6-8, despite their 13-27 loss to Kansas City. Laurainaitis lead St. Louis with 11 total tackles, including 10 solo stops, while Larry Grant chipped in with one. Lil’ Animal now has 98 tackles on the season and Sunday’s totaled matched his season high. On the other side, Mike Vrabel was third on the Chiefs with 4 solo stops. This week, the Niners travel to St. Louis, while Seattle goes to Tampa, setting up the final week showdown for the division when the Rams trek to Seattle.
Down in Miami, Buffalo squashed the Dolphins playoff hope with a 17-14 upset. Hartline had surgery on his hand last week, but Donte Whitner continued his strong season by leading the Bills in tackles once again with 8 totals tackles and half a sack, his first on the season. Whitner climbed back into a tie for 4th (Ray Lewis and London Fletcher) in the league with 124 tackles thus far, as the Bills have now won 4 of their last 6.
In the game of the day, the Eagles roared back from 21 down in the final 8 minutes and returned a punt on the final play to beat the Giants 38-31. Kurt Coleman had the best game of his career with 6 solo tackles, including 1 for a loss and 1 pass defended. KC4 will now be the starter for the Eagles as they make their playoff run, with starter Nate Allen being lost to a knee injury. Jake Ballard was active for the Giants, but didn’t register any stats.
Briefly, Bobby Carpenter had 3 total tackles and 2 passes defended as Detroit stole one in Tampa, 23-20 in OT. Beanie had just 11 yards on 8 carries, marking the fifth time in 11 games he has had less than 20 yards rushing this season. Chris Gamble is still out for the Panthers, as they won for just the second time, 19-12 and the Cardinals lost for the 8th time in their last 9.
The Saints lost a heartbreaker to the Ravens, 30-24, putting them 2 games behind the Falcons for first place, as their matchup looms next Monday. Will Smith had 4 solo stops, including a TFL, while Malcolm Jenkins slowed his recent pace with just 2 tackles. Michael Jenkins caught 3 balls for 48 yards, including a 24 yard TD late in the first to put the Falcons up 17-10 in Seattle. They would go on to beat the Seahawks 34-18, to stay 2 games ahead of the pack for home field throughout the playoffs.
In my second favorite game of the day, the Jets went into Pittsburgh and came away with the 22-17 victory. Santonio had 6 catches for 40 yards, while Nick Mangold, Ben Hartstock and their line mates only gave up 1 sack on the day. The Gun Show showed his face for the second straight week, recording an assist on the night.
In Sunday night’s action, the Packers did better than expected, only falling to the Patriots 30-27. A.J. Hawk and Ryan Pickett each had 2 solo stops and an assist, but the Packers are reeling and could be the last team out in the NFC.
Monday night saw Farve try to steal the spotlight once again, reverting back to his pain killer days with a miraculous start against the Bears in a cold and snowy Minnesota. But the Bears were too much and knocked him out of the game in the second quarter, going on to win 40-14 and clinching the NFC Norris. Antoine Winfield had just 2 tackles for the Vikings.
As you can see, it wasn’t the strongest week for the former Buckeyes and Whitner or Mangold could’ve taken home the award, but we wanted to give it to a first timer this week, even though it was in a losing effort. Brian Robsikie has had a slow start to his NFL career, stuck on a bad team without any threat at WR or QB. Robo had a career day with 5 catches for 82 yards, including a 46 yard TD to pull the Browns within 2 points with under 2 minutes to play, as they fell to Cincy 19-17. Brian now has had 16 catches in his last 4 games and could start to blossom if he continues to gel with Colt McCoy.
