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by Bruce Ciskie

Filed under: Eagles, Lions, Giants, Packers, Rams, Vikings, NFL Live Blogging

He’s back, and it’s stealing all of the headlines. It’s going to be a highly emotional Sunday for many NFL fans, as former Detroit Lions defensive lineman James Hall makes his return to the Motor City as a member of the St. Louis Rams.

Oh, and Brett Favre is back in Green Bay. Not sure if you’ve heard about that one. We’ll chat about NFL Week 8 at 12 p.m. ET.

NFL FanHouse Live Chat: Week 8 originally appeared on NFL FanHouse on Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:30:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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by JJ Cooper

Filed under: Titans, AFC South

At 0-6, there are clearly no sure-thing wins for the Titans. But if you were going to pick a point in the schedule where new starter Vince Young could succeed, you could do a whole lot worse than this week: he gets to face the Jaguars, 49ers and Bills after a bye week.

None of those are sure-fire wins, but all three are winnable games (especially since the Jaguars and Bills passing games should help give the beleaguered Titans secondary a bit of a break). Win two of those games and Young all of a sudden looks like a spark, no matter what his passing stats look like.

Titans’ Timing for Vince Young Switch Is Pretty Good originally appeared on NFL FanHouse on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:55:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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by FanHouse Newswire

Filed under: Browns

BEREA, Ohio (AP) — One of the most loyal Dawg Pounders is done barking about the sad state of his beloved Cleveland Browns. It’s time to bite.

Lifelong Browns fan and season-ticket holder Mike Randall, aka “Dawg Pound Mike,” is encouraging other Cleveland fans to stay away from their seats for the opening kickoff of the Browns’ Nov. 16 home game against Baltimore.

Sickened by the nearly constant losing since the NFL team’s return in 1999, Randall hopes the sight of empty seats for the start of the nationally televised Monday night game will send a loud message to owner Randy Lerner and club officials that fans have had enough.

Cleveland Fans Plan Nov. 16 Protest originally appeared on NFL FanHouse on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:01:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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by Knox Bardeen

Filed under: Bills, Cowboys, AFC East, NFC East

After entering the National Football League in 1996 as a third-round selection, Terrell Owens has put up some big-time numbers in his 14-year career.

He’s the NFL’s active touchdown leader with 142 scores. He’s second among active receivers to Isaac Bruce with 14,364 career receiving yards. He’s also been a six-time Pro-Bowler. But, when asked what his goal for 2009 entailed, Owens didn’t shoot for the moon like you would expect a player with his accolades to do. In fact, all Owens wants to do is outperform Dallas wide receiver Roy Williams.

Terrell Owens Sets Goal: To Outperform Roy Williams originally appeared on NFL FanHouse on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:25:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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by Michael David Smith

Filed under: NFL Media Watch

When Peter King agreed to write a weekly Monday Morning Quarterback column for the 1997 NFL season, he figured it’d be a few hundred words, a week’s worth of stuff that didn’t fit into the pages of Sports Illustrated. That’s not the way it worked out.

As it turned out, MMQB became several thousand words a week on everything and anything that King felt like writing, whether about football or about his family or about coffee. Now, with Monday Morning Quarterback available in book form, King talked to FanHouse about how the column got to this point.

He also addressed accusations that he’s too close to Brett Favre, why he likes Twitter, and what it meant to be the subject of the New York Times crossword puzzle. The full interview is below.

Peter King on the 12-Year Journey of Monday Morning Quarterback originally appeared on NFL FanHouse on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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by Matt Snyder

Filed under: Buccaneers, NFC South, UFL

As we near the halfway point of the NFL season, there is a slew of really bad NFL teams stinking up the joint. The 0-7 Tampa Bay Buccaneers obviously qualify. That means it’s time for a bunch of delusional people to start making claims about how so-and-so could beat the Bucs. You know, college teams, “my rec league team,” high school teams and, of course, UFL teams. Usually these claims are tongue-in-cheek, but Tatum Bell of the UFL’s Florida Tuskers seems pretty serious.

Michael Pittman, a running back for the Tuskers who used to play for the Bucs, said something about how some of his teammates probably thought they could beat the Bucs. Bell immediately said he was one of them. When given a hypothetical score of 24-14 (Tuskers over Bucs), Bell went a bit too far.

Tatum Bell Thinks His UFL Team Would Handily Beat Tampa Bay originally appeared on NFL FanHouse on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:10:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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by R.J. White

Filed under: Titans, NFL Quarterbacks

In what is clearly a long overdue move, the Tennessee Titans are benching veteran Kerry Collins in favor of 26-year-old Vince Young, The Tennessean reports.

Owner Bud Adams reportedly pushed for Young this week. Tennessee head coach Jeff Fisher deliberated on the decision, though, before finally agreeing with Adams and choosing Young as his starter against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday. Fisher announced the change after Tennessee’s practice Thursday.

Collins has been the Titans’ starter since Week 2 of 2008, but an 0-6 start to the 2009 season, coupled with a lack of explosiveness, necessitated a move under center. Collins, in his 15th year out of Penn State, has completed just 54.8 percent of his passes this year, while throwing more interceptions (eight) than touchdowns (five) en route to a 62.0 QB rating.

But is Young the answer?

Vince Young Regains Starting QB Job originally appeared on NFL FanHouse on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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by Dan Graziano

Filed under: Giants, NFL Analysis

It was the fluke catch of the week. Sunday night at the Meadowlands, Giants rookie receiver Hakeem Nicks caught a tipped pass that had been intended for Mario Manningham and carried it all the way to the end zone for a 62-yard touchdown against the Cardinals. It was a shake-your-head play — the kind the defense can write off as an excusable miracle, a bizarre bounce, nothing more than pure luck.

But they say luck is the residue of design, and the people who know Hakeem Nicks say that design is a huge part of his game. Coaches and teammates past and present describe Nicks as an intensely studious, hyper-prepared player who obsesses over his playbook and game scripts and would rather talk about route-running than anything else. Knowing Nicks means knowing that the seeds of that Sunday night play were planted years ago at Independence High School in Charlotte, N.C., where a coach named Tommy Knotts drills 16- and 17-year-old kids on something even NFL coaches struggle to get across — the importance of film study.

Studious Hakeem Nicks the Early Star of Rookie WR Class originally appeared on NFL FanHouse on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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by Dave Goldberg

Filed under: Chicago Bears

Jim Finks knew the Atlanta Falcons would use the first pick of the 1975 draft on Steve Bartkowski, the California quarterback — then, as now, “franchise” quarterbacks were a premium item.

What the general manager of the Chicago Bears didn’t know as he waited on at New York’s Hilton Hotel on Jan. 28 of that year was whether or not Dallas would use the second pick on the player he desperately coveted: Walter Payton, a running back from Jackson State who had finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy voting, despite playing for a historically black school that never competed on national television.

“We didn’t know who we were going to take either,” says Gil Brandt, then the personnel director of the Dallas Cowboys. “I guess the draft started at noon and we didn’t make our decision until maybe an hour before. It was Walter or Randy White and we went with longevity — defensive linemen are supposed to last a lot longer than running backs.”

Walter Payton: Sweetness and Sorrow originally appeared on NFL FanHouse on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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by JJ Cooper

Filed under: Steelers, AFC North, NFL Analysis

As we have done since the FanHouse began, I’ll be taking a look every week at some aspect of line play. You can read more features in the series here. Check back every Thursday for a new Between The Lines.

For three years I rewatched every Steelers game with an eye on the offensive line. And a good bit of the time, it wasn’t pretty. Whether it was a debacle against the Raiders in 2006 or the mass of confusion against the Eagles in 2008, there have been plenty of lowlights.

After watching the Steelers win the Super Bowl last year despite a struggling offensive line, I kind of figured that if everything went well, Pittsburgh could figure out a way to do it again. They had enough defense and enough skill position players on offense to make up for the offensive line’s problems.

Between the Lines: Steelers Offensive Line Has Taken Big Steps originally appeared on NFL FanHouse on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:01:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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