Who says a game without high-flying offenses can’t be exciting?

It took more than four quarters Monday night to settle a defensive brawl between Baltimore and Pittsburgh, one that ended on the leg of Jeff Reed to give the Steelers a 23-20 overtime win.

After a brutal offensive showing in the first half, the Steelers turned the tables on the Ravens with two touchdowns in 15 seconds during the third quarter. With a rejuvenated Heinz Field crowd, Pittsburgh played efficiently for the remainder of the half, and played Baltimore into overtime before sending the fans home happy. Read more »

Another week in the books, this one being the lightest of the early season with six teams on byes. That fact didn’t make Sunday’s action any less stunning, though, with a major upset pulled by the Kansas City Chiefs and a huge day from Jets quarterback Brett Favre.

Favre garnered our Week 4 MVP honors, arguably the most prestigious in all of professional sports, and led a Dream Lineup that also included Larry Johnson, LaDainian Tomlinson, Laveranues Coles and Jason Witten. Writer Bertha dives into the whole lot of awards in this week’s edition of Big Bertha’s Hardware. Read more »

For the fourth straight week, I thought I had a handle on the NFL.

Broncos ae great, Chiefs are terrible. Cowboys are unbeatable at home. Rams are not competitive. Brett Favre will never learn the Jets offense in time to make big fantasy contributions. Matt Schaub will be benched by Week 5. Lane Kiffin will be out of a job any day now.

None of those things happened this week, though Kiffin could be canned by Raiders owner Al Davis at any moment. The point is, no assumptions are fool proof in the National Football League, which makes predicting fantasy football results a nearly impossible feat, too. Read more »

If you have ever been sucker-punched in the gut, you know exactly how I feel after a dreadful Week 3. The 5-11 performance leaves the one and only Raisin’ Brant at a disappointing, but manageable, 24-22-1 through three weeks.

Week 4 has got it all: quarterback questions (Rams, Chiefs, Browns), injured stars (RB Willie Parker and DE Jason Taylor ruled out for respective divisional matchups), even GM firings (… and fans in Detroit rejoice). With all of that and more playing into the picks, this week is the trickiest one to date. Read more »

Two more days, and most NFL teams will hit the quarter pole of a 16-game season. Six bye weeks leave this weekend’s slate a little lighter than previous weeks, but there’s still plenty of Week 4 action to obsessively watch.

Divisional rivalries and an in-state shootout headline our top games to watch in this week’s edition of The DVR Report. Sunday Ticket owners with an abundance of choices and those who have the bad fortune of being away from a TV this week, press record for the following must-see games. Read more »

The answer? Two. One to screw in the light bulb and another to draft an overrated skill position player in the first round of another NFL draft. Lions fans had clearly grown unfathomably sick of being the brunt of all NFL jokes. With lines like, “…and that’s why you’re the Lions” it must have been hard to make it through the past seven years in Detroit.

Matt Millen, a former all-American defensive tackle at Penn State who had moderate success in the NFL before becoming the color guy for MNF radio broadcasts, was hired to be the president of the Detroit Lions in 2001. The events that ensued are so intensely awful that a disclaimer should be required before any form of media lists them consecutively for fear that it could cause a spike in the number of brain aneurysms in the state of Michigan. Read more »

Week 3 likely left many fantasy owners fretting about the next couple weeks in regards to the “bottom of their order”. Jeremy Shockey (sports hernia) is M.I.A. for the next 4-to-6 weeks, Jason Witten missed the end zone for the third straight game, the Pats D might as well have sat out a 38-13 loss to Miami, and the immortal Adam Vinatieri has just three field goals this season.

But fear not. With the bye weeks looming ahead in this weekend’s forecast, here are some suggestions on how to stay dry when injuries, draft busts, and inconsistent performances threaten to rain out a Week 4 victory. Be sure to act fast; with players dropping due to injuries, teams taking the week off, and owners giving up on current starters, these guys won’t stick around on waivers much longer. Read more »

Week 4 is the first for bye weeks, and that means many owners will be missing their full complement of players. You may be reaching for your bench for the first time this year, especially at the flex position. This is where your late-round drafting or early-season free agent pickups will come in handy.

Regardless, every week owners are put to the test with the critical decisions in the flex spot that can determine the outcome of their matchups. If you have guys like RB Chris Perry going against the Browns’ suspect run defense or WR Ike Hilliard facing a banged up Green Bay secondary, feel comfortable putting them, among others, into the flex slot in Week 3. Read more »

Plaxico Burress is a bad dude, in more ways than one. We’ve known for a while, dating back to his days with the Steelers and at Michigan State, that Burress has his share of shortcomings as a human being. Unfortunately for the rest of the National Football League, we’ve also known just how big a force he is on the football field.

Lots of dirt is being dug up on Burress after the Giants announced a two-week suspension for him Wednesday. The first week is a bye for the Giants, but the second is a road contest Burress will miss at Seattle. All told, the suspension will cost Burress $230,000 in salary, the New York Post reported.

The suspension came down after Burress failed to report for Monday and Tuesday team meetings and workouts, according to the Post. Read more »

Youth movement has been a good theme for 2008, with an influx of rookie running backs, dominant performances by young quarterbacks Jay Cutler and Philip Rivers, and lost confidence in some of the game’s best veterans LaDainian Tomlinson, Randy Moss and Peyton Manning. There are no signs of halting the movement, so youth have continued their invasion of our pre-Week 4 edition of the Fantasy NFL 101.

Second-year back Adrian Peterson narrowly fended off a healthy-looking Tomlinson for No. 1 honors, while Frank Gore and Marion Barber jumped Brian Westbrook, who is questionable this week with an ankle strain. Two more young backs are waiting in the wings in Marshawn Lynch (No. 6) and Joseph Addai (No. 8). Read more »