A career day for the former Tarblooder.It was an exciting week in the NFL for the former Buckeyes, as a couple of players returned from injuries and Antonio Pittman saw his first extended action of the season.
Although his stats weren't stellar, Joey Galloway returned from his foot injury to catch 3 passes for 28 yards in Tampa's loss to Dallas, dropping them one game behind Carolina atop the division. The Panthers pulled off a 27-24 home win against Arizona after trailing by 14 in the third quarter. Chris Gamble again lead Carolina with 8 tackles, but their defense gave up 391 yards passing in the contest.
Troy Smith finally is healthy enough to see some action and it looks as if Baltimore is going to use him as a change of pace QB. Smith ran 3 times for 13 yards and completed one pass for 43 yards, on perhaps the most exciting play of the day.
In the 3rd quarter, on 2nd and 8, Smith took a toss from Joe Flacco and completed a 43 yarder back to Flacco, helping set up a field goal. The 29-10 victory pulled the Ravens within a game of the Steelers and it will be interesting to see how Smith is used within the offense.
As mentioned, my man Antonio Pittman got the start for the injured Steven Jackson in St. Louis's 23-16 loss at New England. Pittman rushed 19 times for 83 yards and caught 3 passes for 22 more yards, all numbers were career highs. Jackson's injury doesn't appear to be too serious, but perhaps this performance will give Jim Haslett a bit more confidence in Pittman.
This is the paragraph I usually write about Santonio Holmes, but since he decided to drive around smoking the chronic, he didn't suit up this week. Seriously though, when are athletes going to learn to just stay home if you are going to do something stupid. It has yet to be announced what type of further discipline Holmes will receive, but with two prior situations, he may be out for a few more games.
When it was all said and done, this week's award was an easy choice and this time, he deserved it. Ted Ginn becomes the first two time winner of the Buckeye NFLer of the week in 2008. Of course, I took some heat last time he won (rightfully so) and he followed up that winning performance with a 1 catch for -1 yard game, so I thought all may have been lost for Teddy Ballgame.
However, he exploded for 7 catches totaling 175 yards, to lead all NFL receivers Sunday in Miami's 25-16 upset of Buffalo. Ginn caught a 46 yarder on Miami's first play and added a 64 yard catch and run (ironically caught by Donte Whitner) on their first play of the second half. Coming into the game, Teddy had just 177 receiving yards on the season and the 7 receptions matched his career high.
