WEEK 9
The week started with a pair of former Utes and an Aggie trying to help Johnny Manziel and the fairly bad Cleveland Browns hand the Bengals their first loss of the season.
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Nathan Rupert
Paul Kruger, who was part of Utah’s famed unbeaten 2008 regular season and 2009 Sugar Bowl shocker against Alabama, went on to win a Super Bowl with Baltimore then cash in bigtime (5 Yrs. $41 Million, $20 Mill guaranteed ) in May of 2013 on a free agent contract with Cleveland. Kruger’s production’s been understandably down since coming to the Browns but Paul did pick up a sack on Cincy QB Andy Dalton, giving Kruger 32.5 sacks for his career. Kruger’s fellow Utah Ute, rookie Nate Orchard had 3 tackles including 1 for a loss but the kid who piled up more than 18 sacks to lead Utah’s Sack Lake City defense still hunting his first NFL sack. How about the Aggie? Former Utah State star running back Robert Turbin. is now a former Browns running back. Turbin joined Cleveland in a deal with Seattle, didn’t last long. Turbin was active but didn’t play in last Thursday night’s loss to the Bengals and was cut Tuesday by the Browns.
3 days after Cincy raised their record to 8-0 Carolina did the same. Former Ute Star Lotulelei bringing it with conviction on the Panther D Line, harassed Aaron Rogers all day, Star tracking Rogers down for his 6th career sack. Green Bay started 6-0 but the 37-29 loss to the Panthers in Charlotte drops Green Bay to 6-2 now tied atop the NFC North with Minnesota.
The defending Super Bowl champion Patriots are 8-0 too. Former Ute Sealver Siliga, (who joins me each Tuesday for “The Sealver Lining” a 10-15 minute interview on ESPN 700 radio) had 3 tackles for Bill Belichick’s Patriots as they romped past Washington 27-10.
Miami’s sliding right into surf to fall a fat 5 games behind the Patriots atop the AFC East. Dan Campbell’s Dolphins losing their 2nd straight after winning two in a row right after head coach Joe Philbin was fired. The “Fish” still getting inspired effort from their 3 former Utes. MLB Koa Misi (5 tackles) DE Derrick Shelby (2 tackles) Brice McCain (1) Buffalo rolls 33-27 but at 4-4 still a full 4 games behind the Patriots.
In Minnesota’s 21-18 squeaker over St Louis, former Ute Matt Asiata played a little in the Vikings backfield but only managed 4 yards on a couple of carries. Vikings rolling along at 6-2 Rams dip to 4-4 but still in the thick of the NFC playoff chase, a game out of a possible Wildcard spot.
Jets survived an inspired effort from the Jaguars. Former Ute Trevor Reilly picking up a tackle on Jets’ Special Teams. NY’s 5-3 but trail the AFC East leading Patriots by 3 games. SO in the season where improvements (READ Millions of dollars spent on new blood) were supposed to bring the Dolphins, Bills and Jets closer to the Super Patriots, in fact it’s the same old, same old. Patriots lead the AFC East by a whopping 5 games over Miami, 4 over Buffalo and 3 up on the Jets!
Former Ute Paul Soliai pitched in with 3 tackles but Atlanta’s fast start to the season’s dissolved down to a 6-3 record. Still good enough to own one of the two NFC Wildcard spots if the season ended today. The Niners picked up the 17-16 over the Falcons in Blaine Gabbert’s first start, playing for the benched Colin Kaepernick.
It’s got to be killing former Ute stud Eric Weddle.
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FF Swami
San Diego just lost another close one 22-19 to the Bears. The Chargers haven’t been good the man who communicates with Chargers fans and the public through a twitter account called @weddlesbeard It’s all true. Eric’s refusing to talk contract extension during the season and the chargers showed no signs of wanting to take care of the 11 year NFL veteran. Through all of that and a groin injury that’s forced Weddle to miss a game he continues to bring it. Weddle piling up another 13 tackles (game high) to go along with a fumble recovery! Still the Bolts have lost 5 in a row (by a grand total of 25 points, that’s losing 5 straight by an average of 5 points per loss!) AND are almost certainly headed north to the LA area next season. @weddlesbeard will almost certainly be tweeting from another locale, probably not in SoCal.
