NFL GridIron Gab Daily Digest

Senior writer jclombardi highlights Packers headlines.

Packers ailing defense gives healthy performance–shuts down Jets rushing game, hinders Sanchez, and makes key turnovers: Missing four starters on defense and forced to use two players who joined the team last week, the Packers turned in a magnificent four-quarter defensive performance and stunned the New York Jets, 9-0, at the New Meadowlands Stadium on Sunday. ”I’m very proud of our defense,” said coach Mike McCarthy. “I thought they were outstanding.” The Packers held the Jets’ potent running game in check, limited Mark Sanchez, & came up with three killer turnovers, all in Green Bay territory. “More than anything, I’m really proud of the way these guys fought their tails off,” said defensive coordinator Dom Capers. “When we needed plays, they went and made plays. I hope we can be gritty like this the rest of the way.” Among the heroes were Woodson and Williams, who wrestled balls out of receivers’ hands for interceptions, and LB Walden and DL Green. “It all comes down to stopping the run, man, especially in their place, in a game like this, tight the whole time,” said linebacker A.J. Hawk. “You’ve got to stop the run and take away their No. 1 threat and make them one-dimensional, and we did that.” The Packers held Tomlinson to 54 yards in 16 carries (3.4) and Greene to 22 in six (3.7). The longest run by either back was eight yards.

Packers 9  Jets 0 as Masthay gives Jets the boot: Cornerback Woodson–"Masthay did an excellent job today of kicking it out of our end of the field and getting it to their end of the field, and the teams getting down there and covering. That was an outstanding day of punting, and that played big for us. To have them have to drive 70, 80 yards, that's the kind of field position we like to go out there with." On a day when the offense was out of sync and the defense was forcing turnovers (two interceptions and one fumble recovery, plus a pair of fourth-down stops), the Packers' first-year punter was one of their MVPs. Masthay punted eight times, averaging 44.0 gross yards, 41.5 net yards and 4.51 seconds of hang time, with five of his kicks being downed inside the 20-yard line and only one resulting in a touchback. The Jets were forced to fair-catch three of the punts and registered zero return yards.

Offense struggles–Rodgers, McCarthy shoulder the blame: There wasn’t a lot of blame to be assigned after the Green Bay Packers’ 9-0 upset of the powerful New York Jets Sunday at the New Meadowlands Stadium, but any blame there was ended up being directed mostly at the offense. After Aaron Rodgers had the lowest completion percentage in his three years as the Packers’ starting quarterback and the offense registered season-lows in first downs, yards and points, it was coach Mike McCarthy, the architect of the offense, who took the bullet for scoring only three field goals against the fearsome Jets defense. “Frankly, I’ll take responsibility for the offense,” McCarthy said. “We (simplified) a lot of things based on the way we viewed them as a defense and we probably over-analyzed certain situations and I thought we played that way in the first half, especially on third down. We just couldn’t extend a drive there. Came in at halftime, went back to the basics, thought we moved the ball very well but we had the costly penalties on those first two series. We need to clean things up on offense and obviously be more productive in points. They looked like they were moving fast and we were not. It’s like anything in football. You can’t go out and try to be right all the time. You need to go out and play, trust your adjustments. We need to go out there, run our base offense against these defenses and let’s just go play.”

The Titans were looking for a statement win in San Diego Sunday. Instead, they not only suffered a tough 8-point loss at 33-25, they once again lost their QB as Vince Young left the game with a sprained ankle.

The Chargers (3-5) snapped their three-game losing streak and beat the Titans (5-3) for the eighth straight time dating to 1993. Young wasn’t the only Titan to leave the game, as they also lost wide receiver Kenny Britt to a right hamstring injury in the first quarter.

Young was hurt while scrambling with less than six minutes to play and had to be helped off the field. Kerry Collins moved the Titans to the Chargers 15 before Chris Johnson dropped a pass on fourth-and-2 with 30 seconds to go.

“It is going to be a long plane ride back, no doubt,'' fullback Ahmard Hall said. "We had a great game plan, and we started out fast. But we let it slip away from us. … Now we have to regroup and come back strong in the second half of the season.''

The Titans looked as if they were finally going to overcome the Chargers, as they built a 19-7 lead in the second quarter on the strength of a 29-yard Johnson TD run. He got a key block from Young on the play.

The Chargers scored the game's next 20 points to go ahead 27-19, in large part because the Titans couldn't get to quarterback Philip Rivers, who completed 27 of 36 passes for 305 yards.

"If he was a cat,'' defensive end Jason Babin said, "I think he probably used all nine lives today. He stepped up in the pocket and made some throws and it was like, 'How did he get that ball off?' "

Playing with an injured toe, Chargers TE Antonio Gates took advantage of yet another mismatch. He got behind linebacker Will Witherspoon to haul in the go-ahead, 48-yard pass TD pass, his ninth of the season, for a 24-19 lead.

"They were the most complete team we've played," Turner said. "That's what makes this win that much more special to me."

Young played well, going 10-for-21 for 253 yards and two touchdowns. Rivers had his fifth 300-yard game of the season, tying his career high from last season.

Young's 71-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Nate Washington pulled the Titans to 27-25 with 11:43 left. The conversion pass to Johnson failed.

The Titans will be smarting for some time, as they have the bye now before they finally get back on the field November 14th at Miami.

It may not have been pretty, but a win is a win, and the Chiefs will take it.

The club moved to 5-2 on the season after Ryan Succop kicked a 35-yard field on the last play of overtime to get the team to a 13-10 win over a game Bills team.

Succop missed a 39-yard attempt left earlier in OT, but got a shot to redeem himself, which he did as the Chiefs stayed up top the division.

"I hit (the first one) really well, as crazy as that sounds," Succop said. "I guess I learned something from the first one and realized I'm going to have to put this ball outside the post because there was that much wind today. I feel very blessed to have the second opportunity."

The Bills looked like they won the game in OT as Rian Lindell kicked what would have been a 53-yard game-winner earlier in the overtime. But the kick was nullified because the Chiefs had called time out. His second try was a wobbler in the wind that struck the right upright and gave the Chiefs a shot to go out and win it.

"It's kind of a goofy deal, but it is what it is," he said. "I just wanted to hit a good ball. I didn't really, and then they said time out and I tried it again. I just got way too much turf on it. I wasn't hitting a very good ball all day and that was a good example of that."

The Chiefs, the NFL's No. 1 rushing offense, ran well all day, going for 274 yards against Buffalo's league-worst rushing defense, with Jamaal Charles piling up 177 yards on 22 carries. He also had 61 yards on four catches, including a 16-yard catch to start the winning 53-yard drive.

Thomas Jones had 77 yards on 19 carries as the Chiefs went over 200 yards three games in a row for the first time since 1978.

"We hung in there. The way we won actually says a lot more than the win itself," Jones said.

Matt Cassel hit Dwayne Bowe with a 1-yard TD late in the first half for the first points of the game. They almost blew it as Ryan Fitzpatrick had a late drive going for the Bills with the game tied at 10, but threw a pick that saved the Chiefs and allowed them to eventually win it.

Next week the Chiefs will play the red-hot Raiders, who beat Seattle 33-3 Sunday.

On a night where the Steelers could have clearly cemented themselves as the best team in the AFC and therefore the league, the club looked ordinary in losing to a not nearly as good as 2009 Saints team 20-10 to fall to 5-2 on the year.

The loss puts the team in a tie with Baltimore in the AFC North, and based on the fact the Ravens beat the Steelers, it really means the Steelers find themselves in 2nd place in the division.

The team had their shots, as they allowed the Saints to build a 13-3 lead, but then finally found some offense in the 4th quarter that ended with a Rashard Mendenhall 38-yard TD run with over 10 minutes left to make it 13-10.

On the next Saints drive, they got to the Steelers 20, but on a 3rd-and-4 Bryant McFadden flew in and hit Drew Brees, who fumbled and LaMarr Woodley recovered it.

The Steelers seemed to have all the momentum, as they gained 14 yards in two plays to the 39, and then Ben Roethlisberger hit Heath Miller, who rumbled for 25 yards, but then coughed up the ball right into the hands of Darren Sharper, who took it to the Saints 45.

From there, the Steelers D couldn’t stop Brees and the Saints offense, as they quickly marched the distance, helped by a weak personal foul call on James Harrison. Instead of trying to run the clock out, the Saints put the dagger in, as Brees hit Lance Moore with an 8-yard score to make it 20-10.

Roethlisberger threw a pick on the next series to end any shot the Steelers may have had. The QB was 17-for-28 for 195 yards with a pick. His QB rating was 66.8.

Brees threw for 305 yards on going 34-for-44 with two TD’s and a pick.

The Steelers appeared to go up 7-0 after Ben hit Antwaan Randel El with a 12-yard score early in the second quarter. He was ruled down at the one on the replay, and from there they couldn’t get a yard and settled for a 19-yard Jeff Reed field goal.

Then after the Saints tied it, Ryan Clark picked off Brees near the end of the half, but a weak push off call on Hines Ward cost the Steelers 10 yards, and they had to settle for a 51-yard field goal attempt by Reed, which was missed.

The Saints got a field goal and TD to go up 10 before the frantic comeback fell short. The Steelers continue their run on prime time, as they play the Bengals on Monday night next week.

Troy Smith played a mistake-free game in his debut for the 49ers and would lead his team to victory at London's Wembley Stadium. Troy Smith, seeing action in his first NFL game of this season completed 12 of 19 passes for 196 yards and 1 touchdown. Smith also ran for a touchdown.

The first half of the game started out slow both teams and the 49ers had a 3-0 lead heading into halftime. In the second half, the teams made things interesting for the British fans in attendance. The scoring started with the Broncos in the third quarter on a Tim Tebow 1-yard touchdown run.  After another Broncos score on a Matt Prater field goal, Smith would have a 1-yard touchdown run of his own to tie the game at 10 apiece.

Smith's touchdown run would be the first of three touchdown drives for the Niners.  The second touchdown was a 28-yard pass from Smith to Crabtree. Frank Gore would make the game 24-10 on a 3-yard run with just less than four minutes remaining.

Gore finished the game with 118 rushing yards. The offense still has some work to do but one has to be encouraged by the relative progress they have made since the beginning of the season. With a Bye Week coming up, here is hoping that the coaching staff really gets their stuff together and start the second half of the season with a bang.

In all, while it took Troy Smith and the offense three quarters to find their groove, I am impressed by what he showed. Smith did more than manage the game and he did not force any plays that would lead to mistakes. I do not want to get ahead of myself, but if Smith continues at this pace, the 49ers will be competitive in the games they have left. While I am not suggesting that Troy Smith should become our quarterback of the future, I think his success may spell the end of Alex Smith's career in San Francisco.

THE GOOD

The Play-calling
Greg Olson kept the Cardinals defense on its toes by balancing run, pass and play-action. You'd probably not want to have eight drives end in turnovers and punts but Freeman had arguably his best game of the season, throwing for 278 yards, his highest total in a game in which he doesn't throw a pick.

The Poise
Freeman made an uncharacteristic late mistake in taking a sack that knocked the team out of field goal range and Blount's fumble proved costly, but this task was not too difficult or too intimidating for the young Bucs team on the road. They've now tied a franchise record with 8 straight road games. Maybe Raheem is onto something.

The Defense
They made several turnovers that required teamwork to execute. The Geno Hayes TD return was huge. Now, they did allow the Big Red offense to put up and points and Derek Anderson was in a giving mood late as he twice threw into triple coverage for Fitzgerald. That said, the corners hustle, make plays, and this week, Aqib Talib won them the game.

THE BAD

Nearly Costly Turnovers
It's probably an anomaly or just Blount's youth but ball security is even more a factor in the red zone.

LOOKING AHEAD: This Sunday will be the true testing ground. There were things the Bucs could have done differently that would have narrowed the gap a little in the blow-out losses to New Orleans and Pittsburgh. I think they are getting better from week-to-week. As I said in my preview, Arizona has playmakers with bad decision-making. Whisenhunt put the ball in the hands of his fourth-string RB who fumbled and Derek Anderson made some bad reads. The Bucs gave up 396 yards of offense but forced four INTs and lead the league with 14 this year. The Bucs did what they needed to do to win. This next week, they can show they belong in the Super Bowl discussion with a win in Atlanta.

Exactly what the Nation ordered! The Raiders demolished the Seattle Seahawks with a suffocating defense that kept the Seahawks with less than 200 total yards and continued to pressure Matt Hasselback every time he went back to pass. Let’s review how the Raiders got themselves ready for next weeks big showdown with KC Chiefs.

Handle the Pressure

Yep. They knew this was a big game, and they came out and simply were better than the Seahawks. You could see from the players expression at the end winning 2 games in a row meant a lot.

Nnamdi Lock Down Mike Williams

Yep. Mike Williams was help to 27 yards, and as a group, a poor WR corp was held to 70 yards receiving. Obviously, Nnamdi’s injury is a big concern moving forward.

Win the Turnover Game

Yep. It was most important that the Raiders didn’t give up the ball at all, great game by Jason Campbell in running the team (and getting a couple of lucky bounces).

Run DMC and Bush

Yep. 30 carries for 162 yards between them and a group they ran for 240 yards. They were patient and had 4 runs that went over 30 yards each.

Blitz Hasselback

Nope. That’s because their front 4 were great in pressuring him and their secondary gave them that extra half-second to get there to a tune of 8 sacks.

Tom Cable was right, the Raiders are doing their part. They now are 4-4 and face a huge divisonal game at home against the KC Chiefs. It’s CHIEFS week Nation, let’s be there on Sunday!!!

Raiders 33 Seahawks 3

I don’t know about Steeler Nation, but I for one feel this team blew a number of opportunities in a first half in which they dominated.

First off, why didn’t Mike Tomlin challenge the 2nd down play inside the two when it appeared that Rashard Mendenhall’s elbow hit the goal line, which should have been a touchdown?! I realize maybe he felt they had a shot to score on third down, but to me, the refs may have given him that score and the team would have led 7-0 instead of 3-0.

Jeff Reed is really starting to concern me. This to me has been his worst season, and while I realize your asking him to hit a 51-yard field goal, in a dome he needs to make that.

The defense is doing exactly what it needs to do. They are making Saints WR’s pay for every catch, and Drew Brees has been on the receiving end of a number of solid hits.

That was an awful call on Hines Ward when Ben tried to squeeze it in to him after the pick. I’ve seen guys like Randy Moss and others push off a lot worse than that. It really put the team behind the 8-ball for the remainder of the drive.

Both teams have 119 yards, and this is looking to be a 13-10 type of game. The Steelers need to be safe with the ball in the 2nd half, and need to make sure they make some plays on offense and they will be fine.

Steelers pull out the 13-10 win.

The question all week long was about if Brett Favre would play for the Vikings at QB Sunday.

He did – but it didn’t matter.

Favre, on two broken bones in his ankle, seemed just fine till he left the game with a facial laceration in the fourth quarter as the Vikings fell to the Pats 28-18 to fall to 2-5 on the season.

Tom Brady was more the hero for the Pats, as he completed 16 of 27 passes for 240 yards and BenJarvus Green-Ellis ran 17 times for 112 yards to give the Patriots (6-1) their fifth straight victory.

Tarvaris Jackson took Favre’s place in the fourth, and made a game of it, throwing for a a touchdown on his first play and a 2-point conversion on his second, but he didn't get the ball back until the two-minute warning had sounded and the Vikings trailed by 10.

Favre went 22 for 32 for 259 yards, throwing a pick on a tipped ball and taking two intentional grounding penalties when he tried to avoid sacks.

Adrian Peterson carried 25 times for 92 yards, and Percy Harvin caught six passes for 104 yards for the Vikings despite missing about a quarter with an ankle injury.

The big play of the late game was Brady hitting wide out Golden Tate with a 65-yard touchdown on a broken play to give New England a 14-10 lead at one point.

Seattle's attempt to start 5-2 for the first time since 2005 fell short Sunday at Oakland Coliseum as the Raiders, fueled by their defense and a handful of big plays on offense, beat the Seahawks 33-3.

Despite the loss, Seattle (4-3) remains atop the NFC West standings, with St. Louis sitting a half-game behind. Thanks to the win, Oakland (4-4) enters November with a .500 or better record for the first time since 2002.

Limited to four yards of total offense in the first quarter, the Seahawks didn't record a first down until their last drive of the first half. A 51-yard missed field goal by Olindo Mare killed the drive and the opportunity for Seattle to cut Oakland's 10-point lead to seven moments before halftime. The miss snapped the 15-year veteran's streak of 30 consecutive field goals made.

Mare would miss another field goal, a 29-yard attempt, in the third quarter, but would eventually convert from 47 yards out with 9:02 remaining in the game.

While the Seattle offense accumulated just 162 yards of total offense, Oakland's flourished. Thirty of the Raiders' 33 points and 345 of the team's 545 total yards stemmed from eight plays.

Wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey accounted for two of them.

On first-and-ten at the Seattle 42 with 7:14 to go in the first quarter, the second-year wideout took a handoff 30 yards downfield. Five plays later, Sebastian Janikowski tallied the game's first points with a 31-yard field goal.

Following a Matt Hasselbeck interception in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter, Heyward-Bey took a Jason Campbell pass 69 yards into the end zone to give the Raiders a 23-0 advantage.

The 2009 first-round draft pick finished the game with five receptions for 105 yards and the touchdown and 30 rushing yards.

Can't get enough SeahawksGab?  Follow Editor Devon Heinen on Twitter at http://twitter.com/DevonHeinen.