PJ's Pigskin Points Challenge Week 12

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Try to Defeat Free The Fan Member PJ in a head to head battle weekly by picking 4 games and an upset using the Vegas point spreads. All winners will receive an opportunity to win a prize from overstock.com.

NFL Power Rankings: 2008 Week 11 Edition

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Giants Antonio Pierce expected to be back this week to face the Steelers.

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Spending a game walking the sidelines with coach Tom Coughlin and defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo was more than enough for Antonio Pierce.Less than a week after being sidelined by a quad injury, the New York Giants' middle linebacker has practiced without restrictions the past two days and appears ready for Sunday's showdown with the Steelers in Pittsburgh. "Sitting next to Spags and Coughlin is not entertaining at all," Pierce said Thursday. "I don't know what is entertaining to those guys, but not entertaining enough to get me to sit next to them. To be able to practice and go out there and be with the guys again is always fun. "When you are not out there, you kind of feel like you are not part of the team, so that is the toughest thing about when you are injured and you can't practice or play," said the eight-year veteran who leads the Giants (5-1) in tackles. Pierce will be a game-time decision Sunday, but admitted he's feeling much better. His status seems less iffy than receiver Plaxico Burress, who missed his second straight day of practice on Thursday with a sore shoulder and a stiff neck. Coughlin said that X-rays and an MRI on Thursday found no structural problems. "We will see how he does tomorrow," he said. Burress did not talk to reporters after practice. Pierce was much more accommodating. He said he woke up this past Sunday and felt that he would be able to play against the San Francisco 49ers at Giants Stadium. The coaches and the training staff vetoed the idea, leaving Pierce to act as another coach on the sidelines."I am always coaching every Sunday," said Pierce, who acts like a traffic cop during games, adjusting the defensive calls before snaps, telling players where to go while seemingly talking to the opposing quarterback. When he wasn't following Coughlin and Spagnuolo on Sunday, Pierce was talking with Chase Blackburn, his replacement, and rookie Bryan Kehl, who was starting at weakside linebacker with Gerris Wilkinson injured. "In a lot of ways, I could probably hand him the game plan and let him call it," Spagnuolo said. "He is that good. I think all the other guys that play around him know that, so there is a lot of confidence and a lot of comfort." Pierce, who originally hurt his quad against Seattle on Oct. 5 and aggravated it the next week against Cleveland, is looking forward to Sunday's game between the division leaders in the NFC East and the AFC North. "I don't know what a big game is. A big game is the Super Bowl," Pierce said. "For us this is another game, we are playing the Steelers, we are excited, they are a 5-1 team, they are physical, they have a good defense, a great offense, so it is going to be a challenge. I think if anything it is going to be a challenge to us both physically and mentally so we are excited to be out there ready to play." Pierce said the Giants not only need to pressure Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, but they have to go after his arms. Too many teams go after his legs and upper body and the big quarterback brushes them aside."I think it is going to be one of those matches where you watch a great boxing match, where you have two fighters that are going to stand in the middle of the ring," Pierce said. "That is what we expect from them and I hope that is what we go in there expecting to do." The only thing that seemed to get Pierce upright was the suggestion that the Giants were finally playing a good team. The Super Bowl champions have beaten only one team with a better than .500 record this season. "This is a team that beat the St. Louis Rams, who beat the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins, so to answer that question, we have faced every NFL team, we haven't played a Pop Warner team, we haven't played a junior college team," he said. "I mean Rutgers is very good, but we haven't even played Rutgers yet, so there is no such thing as a real team or a real game. We are facing NFL teams and those teams have been strong."

Miracle Teams to make it to the Big Game Part 3

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NFL Power Rankings: 2008 Week 6 edition

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NFL Power Rankings: 2008 Week 5 edition

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Daily Fantasy Report 18: Bengals' troubles mount

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NFL Power Rankings: 2008 Week 4 edition

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Daily Fantasy Report 12: Breakout Backs

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NFL Power Rankings: 2008 Week 3

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Daily Fantasy Report 10: Firepower in Week 3

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Cardinals vs. Redskins Week 3

NFL Power Rankings: 2008 Week 2

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Daily Fantasy Report 6: Double threat in Denver

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Week 2 predictions

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Just a few educated guesses comment and tell me whats right and wrong.

Which team will be the shocker of this season?

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I just wanna know what team everyone thinks will be the shocker this season? 49ers? Vikings? Lions? Rams? Falcons? Raiders? Or who else??

O'Sullivan to start for 49ers in season opener.

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The 49ers have named J.T. O'Sullivan as their starting quarterback for the regular-season opener, coach Mike Nolan told reporters Friday. The long-anticipated announcement comes as no surprise after O'Sullivan's impressive performance Thursday night against the Chicago Bears in the 49ers' third exhibition game. O'Sullivan had been working with the first-team offense since Aug. 6, moving past former starter and 2005 No. 1 overall draft choice Alex Smith on the depth chart. "J.T. O'Sullivan will be our starting quarterback going into the season and I'm expecting him to succeed," Nolan said Friday. "I'm very confident J.T. is at the point where he's our best man for the job right now." O'Sullivan, 29, has never started a regular-season NFL game. Smith, 24, was the starter until a shoulder injury limited him to seven games in 2007. O'Sullivan Still Prospecting 49ers QB J.T. O'Sullivan becomes one of the lowest-paid starting quarterbacks in the league now that Mike Nolan has officially named him the 49ers' starter. Mike Sando The 49ers signed O'Sullivan in March after naming Mike Martz as their offensive coordinator. Martz and O'Sullivan were together with the Detroit Lions last season. O'Sullivan's familiarity with Martz's offense gave him an edge in a competition that began with Smith and veteran Shaun Hill as the primary competitors. "This hasn't been a case of Alex and Shaun not performing well," Nolan said. "This has been a case of J.T. performing very well. That's why we are where we are. J.T. has very good command of the offense, he's played well in all three preseason games, and now it's time for us to get ready for the regular season." O'Sullivan has completed 60.6 percent of his passes for 351 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions in three exhibition starts this summer. His passer rating is 91.8. Smith, working mostly with the second-team offense, has completed 42.1 percent of his passes with one touchdown, no interceptions and a 67.4 rating. "We want to play our best players that give us the best chance to win," Nolan said. "For our football team's sake, it's time to get ready for our opening game. This [decision] puts more focus on where it should be now." Smith enters the season as the No. 2 quarterback, with Hill in the No. 3 role. San Francisco opens the regular season Sept. 7 versus the Arizona Cardinals.

Orton named Bears' starting quarterback.

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Who is the right fit?

Memo to Jets fans: Don't expect ultimate payoff with Favre

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Barring a miracle voting push for Raiders great Ken Stabler, Brett Favre will be the next quarterback selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame four years after he officially retires. That would make him the 24th modern-era quarterback to go into the Hall. The trade to the New York Jets won't tarnish his Packers legacy. Favre's a first-ballot Hall of Famer, end of story. The potentially sad part of the Favre story is the odds are against his leaving the league on a high note, considering that all-time greats like Johnny Unitas, Joe Namath and Warren Moon all failed to duplicate previous success after switching teams late in their careers. The best-case scenario for Favre is going out like Joe Montana, a tenacious leader who added more credibility to the Kansas City Chiefs but didn't leave with a Super Bowl ring. [+] EnlargeAl Pereira/Getty Images Brett Favre's move to the Jets is similar to the path taken by Hall of Famer Joe Montana in the 1990s. First of all, it's rare for a Hall of Fame quarterback to finish on another team. John Elway, Dan Marino, Jim Kelly, Troy Aikman, Steve Young, Roger Staubach, Dan Fouts, Terry Bradshaw, Bob Griese, Bart Starr and Len Dawson all retired with the teams that made them famous, having reasonably clean endings to their great careers. Naturally, like Favre, it was hard for them to surrender to age. But the move to a new team for a quarterback in his late 30s is like a banker trying to open a new shop with devalued currency. Last week, I spent a few days at Chiefs training camp. While Favre was batting Packers management, I reminisced about the two years Montana played for Kansas City. The circumstances had an eerie similarity to the Favre situation. Heading into the 1993 season, the 49ers were ready to make the permanent move to Young at quarterback. Montana was 37 and had missed 15 games the previous season because of a bursa sac problem in his elbow. Young was 32 and coming off two seasons in which he was the league's top-rated quarterback. 49ers management wanted Montana to compete against Young, but Montana sensed the outcome. He sensed the 49ers were willing to move on. Like Favre, Montana didn't want to enter a competition he could lose. Hall of Fame quarterbacks are used to winning. The Arizona Cardinals and Chiefs were the two teams bidding the hardest for Montana. He ended up going to the Chiefs for a first-round pick and safety David Whitmore. Unlike the Jets, who are trying to bounce back after a horrible 2007 season, the Chiefs were a perennial playoff team usually frustrated by first-round playoff losses. Quizzing many of the Chiefs' front-office holdovers from the Montana trade, no one had any regrets about the experience. In his two seasons with the Chiefs, Montana fought injuries and missed games. His stats were modest. The Chiefs' points per game went down slightly with Montana as their quarterback. Change Of Scenery Brett Favre isn't the first prominent quarterback to change teams late in his career. Here are some others. ZOOM gallery What validated the trade for GM Carl Peterson and the Chiefs was how Montana put together a little of the old magic in the 1993 playoffs. Montana beat the Pittsburgh Steelers and Houston Oilers in tight games before losing to the Bills and Jim Kelly in the AFC title game. The next year, the Chiefs made the playoffs as a wild-card team at 9-7 and lost in the first round to the Dolphins and Dan Marino. That's the problem facing Favre with the Jets. Keeping Favre in Green Bay, with the same system in which he has played for 16 years, could have translated into a division title and a possible trip to the NFC Championship Game with home-field advantage for the Packers. But an aging Hall of Fame quarterback who moves to a new home this late usually translates into a wild-card spot and an uphill battle in the playoffs. Of course, if Aaron Rodgers is only able to take the Packers into the wild-card round and allows the Vikings to take command of the NFC North, Packers brass will be severely criticized for not keeping Favre. Schedule and quarterback play are the keys to success in modern-day football. Continuity in offense is also important. That's why Favre's move to the AFC should come with limited expectations. With the Chiefs, Montana had to go up against Marino, Kelly, Elway and an aging Moon in Houston. Favre has to fend for himself on a new AFC team going against Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, Philip Rivers and Carson Palmer, and Favre has to do it in a division that is dominated by the Patriots. A Hall of Fame quarterback can be the wild card that turns a good franchise into a dynasty. Favre did that in Green Bay and might have been able to squeeze out another title had the Packers let him return. As Montana proved in Kansas City, it's a long shot for an aging Hall of Fame quarterb

NFL Power Rankings: 2008 Training Camp edition. Do You Agree?!?!

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Madden Monday: 2008 Season Simulation:IGN.com predicts 2008-09 Season...

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Preseason We started the simulation in the preseason, which resulted in two key injuries, one of which dramatically derailed the team of the player involved. Both players hurt were wideouts. The first was Randy Moss, who went down in the first week of the preseason with a torn pectoral muscle that would keep him out of the Patriots lineup until Week 10; the other was star returner Devin Hester, who broke his collarbone in the final preseason game and was placed on Injured Reserve by the Bears. This automatically ended his season without a single regular season game. NFC North It would be the Chicago Bears who saw their team laid to waste by the injury to their star wide receiver. A Bears team that was unable to move the ball ended up a woeful, NFL-worst 1-15 on the year. It would not be the only surprise of the year. The Vikings claimed the NFC North by virtue of a 10-6 record, with the Packers retreating to 8-8 following Brett Favre's retirement. The Lions actually won seven games, meaning that whenever Jon Kitna predicts that the team will win ten games, they'll actually win seven. NFC South It came down to a tiebreaker, but the Buccaneers used a Pro Bowl season from Jeff Garcia to claim their second straight NFC South crown with a 10-6 record. Joey Galloway was named to the All-Pro team by virtue of a league-leading 107 receptions for 1438 yards and 10 touchdowns. They narrowly beat out the Saints, who claimed one of the two Wild Card spots. The Panthers continued to be mired in mediocrity at 8-8, while the Falcons didn't start Matt Ryan for most of the year, but still went 7-9. Michael Turner finished second in the league in rushing with 1,408 yards. NFC West In a division that no one wanted to win, the Rams returned to the playoffs with merely an 8-8 record. The Seahawks, 49ers, and Cardinals all finished at 6-10, with the Cards struggling following injuries to both Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald, while the Seahawks lost four games by three points or less. NFC East In perhaps the biggest shocker, the Super Bowl champion New York Giants actually finished in last place, only months removed from their miraculous run. Losing Michael Strahan hurt, but what hurt even more was a tough schedule; the Giants finished 8-8, but were in the wrong division for that to matter. Every other team had a winning record; the Cowboys took the division with an NFC-best 13-3 record, the Redskins claimed the other Wild Card by winning 11 games, and the Eagles finished in third at 9-7. ------------------- ------------------------- ------------------------- ----------- Nocheating in Madden; we think. AFC East The NFL MVP for a second straight year was Tom Brady, as the Patriots quarterback threw for 4,075 yards and 41 touchdowns despite only having Moss for the final six games of the season. Rodney Harrison was also named Defensive MVP, as the punishing safety stayed healthy all year and picked off six passes. The Pats finished with the best record in the AFC at 13-3. The Jets' spending spree paid off, as they won ten games and picked up a Wild Card spot, while the Dolphins returned to respectability at 8-8, and the Toronto/Buffalo Bills held up the rear at 6-10. AFC North The Steelers retained their AFC North title by winning twelve games, with the Browns taking a step backwards and finishing at 8-8. The Bengals could only win five games, and despite a Offensive Rookie of the Year performance from quarterback Joe Flacco, the Ravens went 4-12 to finish in dead last and pick up a top-three pick in the 2009 NFL Draft. AFC South You'll never guess who won the AFC South. Wait, did you guess the Colts? Oh, maybe you can guess it then. Peyton Manning threw for an NFL-high 4,465 yards and 34 touchdowns to help push the Colts to twelve wins, although tiebreakers meant that they wouldn't have a first-round bye for the first time since their Super Bowl win. The Jaguars went 9-7 and picked up the other AFC Wild Card berth. The Titans were sitting pretty at 8-5, but lost their final three games to go 8-8 -- that's what happens when you finish with the Steelers and the Colts. The Texans remained irrelevant at 6-10. AFC West Speaking of the status quo, the Chargers dominated the AFC West and went 12-4, winning the division by five games. A Denver team desperately in need of fresh blood went 7-9, while both the Chiefs and Raiders went 4-12 despite a 100-catch season from Dwayne Bowe and 947 yards (and nine touchdowns) from Darren McFadden. The playoffs were as full of surprises as the regular season was. That's the magic of having parity in a league, as well as teams run by young quarterbacks who can either step up their game or panic come playoff time. Wild Card The Jaguars went on the road and upset the Chargers, 23-20, by virtue of 147 rushing yards from Fred Taylor. Tampa Bay blew out New Orleans, 37-13, with Drew Brees throwing five -- count them -- five interce