The 2014 NFL thread

[ANNODAM]

^ Not looking good

[Pies4shaw]

And to round out week 6, the 49ers did, of course, beat the Rams. They trialled 14:0 but then put on 24 unanswered and ran out 31:17 winners.

[Pies4shaw]

This Monday morning's free to air games in Australia are New Orleans at Detroit 4 am), Giants at Dallas (7.30am) and a real blockbuster game with San Francisco at Broncos (11.30). Some will see this as a potential Superbowl preview, others will see it as a last opportunity for Peyton to get hammered into oblivion before he passes The Great One's all-time record of 508 touchdown passes. Just 2 behind, now. So expect me to be mentioning this a lot until the record is no longer held by the greatest player ever to take the field in any sport, ever.

[Pies4shaw]

So, the Jets have found a new way to lose: 25:27 to the Patriots, with a blocked field goal at the end costing them the win.

Really, how do you lose a game when you have the ball in your possession for 41 of the 60 minutes? 28 first downs to 16, 218 yards rushing and 226 yards through the air? The answer: Tom Brady for the Pats with 3 TD passes, of course. The Jets have now lost 6 in a row. Will Rex Ryan last the weekend? Watch this space.

[Pies4shaw]

The Seahawks have just traded Percy Harvin to the Jets.

[OEP]

[Pies4shaw]

Smacks of desperation by the Jets, OEP. Apparently, Seattle was going to cut him if a trade couldn't be organised.

Meanwhile, your boys are letting me down badly: less than half the first quarter gone and Peyton already has one of the 2 TD throws he needs to catch The Great One. Couldn't the 49ers have had the decency just to let Hillman across when he ran to three-yard line?

[Pies4shaw]

Tied at 508, now. Still 3 minutes to go in the first. A missed field goal by the 49ers and the hole is starting to deepen.

[Pies4shaw]

Tied at 508, now. Still 3 minutes to go in the first. A missed field goal by the 49ers and the hole is starting to deepen.

[Pies4shaw]

And there it is. 509 TD passes for Peyton Manning. Congratulations.

[Pies4shaw]

From ESPN:

"DENVER -- Just three years removed from spinal fusion surgery, in what has been a remarkable re-start to his NFL career as the Denver Broncos quarterback, Peyton Manning passed Brett Favre for the league's record for career touchdown passes Sunday night with his 509th career scoring pass in front of a national primetime audience.

Manning stands alone at the top of the list after an 8-yard touchdown pass to Demaryius Thomas with 3:09 remaining in the first half. The pass gave the Broncos a 21-3 lead in the game.

The Broncos played a brief tribute, that included a video message from Favre, John Elway and several of Manning's teammates. The Broncos receivers, as well as Julius Thomas, played keepaway briefly to keep the record football from Manning before finally handing the ball to the future Hall of Famer.

Manning had thrown a 3-yard touchdown pass to Emmanuel Sanders with 8:29 second left in the opening quarter for his 507th career scoring pass, along with a 39-yard scoring pass to Wes Welker with 2:57 left in the first quarter to tie the record. It was Sanders' first touchdown catch of the season and his first scoring pass from Manning.

The game marked Manning's 246th regular-season start while Favre threw 508 touchdown passes in 302 regular-season starts for the Green Bay Packers, New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings. Manning threw 399 touchdown passes in the regular season during his tenure with the Indianapolis Colts.

Manning had reached the 500 mark in the Broncos' 41-20 victory over the Arizona Cardinals in Week 5, a game Manning finished with a career-best 479 yards passing. At 38 years old, after four neck surgeries, Manning has now thrown 110 touchdown passes for the Broncos since signing with the team in 2012.

It also means since choosing the Broncos over a list of suitors that included the Cardinals, Tennessee Titans and 49ers, Manning has set the league's single-season touchdown record (55 in 2013), guided the Broncos to back-to-back 13-win seasons and a Super Bowl appearance.

With 509 touchdown passes, Manning is currently 135 scoring passes ahead of the next active quarterback -- the New Orleans Saints' Drew Brees, who has 374 career scoring passes after throwing two in the Saints' loss Sunday to the Detroit Lions. New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has 372 career scoring passes and the next active quarterback is Eli Manning, who has 243 career touchdown passes after Sunday's game against the Dallas Cowboys.

Behind Manning and Favre, Hall of Famer Dan Marino is No. 3 all-time with 420 touchdown passes. And though current Broncos executive vice president of football operations/general manager John Elway hasn't thrown a pass since the 1998 season, he is still seventh on the all-time list with 300.

Manning has tried to deflect the record's approach for much of the past month.

Manning Tops TD List

Peyton Manning became the all-time leader in TD passes Sunday night. Only seven quarterbacks in NFL history have surpassed 300 TD passes.


QB

Years

TDs


Peyton Manning 1998-active 509*
Brett Favre 1991-2010 508
Dan Marino 1983-1999 420
Drew Brees 2001-active 374
Tom Brady 2000-active 372
Fran Tarkenton 1961-1978 342
John Elway 1983-1998 300

* 3 Sunday night vs. 49ers


"I think we've concentrated on the important things. We've had two good wins coming off a bye week -- an early bye week," Manning said earlier this week. "I think you're curious how you're going to respond, especially if you have a little bit of rhythm going and you're playing decent football and then you have an early bye week. Do you come out sluggish? Do you lose anything that you had? I think we've responded well coming off that bye week and have had two good wins playing excellent teams. So that's what I've concentrated on, trying to do whatever it takes to win and I don't feel like it's been a distraction because we've handled it and focused on what's important."

Manning has also thanked "everybody, the coaches I've teammates I've played with ... any kind of record doesn't happen without them."

The pass to Demaryius Thomas gave Manning three touchdowns in the game and made it the 89th career game with at least three touchdowns passes.

Of all of the players who have reeled in touchdown passes from Manning since the start of his rookie season in 1998, former Colts wide receiver Marvin Harrison leads the way with 112 touchdown passes from Manning, with Reggie Wayne having caught 67 scoring passes and Dallas Clark with 44.

Since joining the Broncos Demaryius Thomas leads the way with 29 touchdown passes, including the record breaker.

"Throwing touchdowns is a part of playing football," Manning said in recent weeks. "But I guess for me throwing touchdowns has helped teams I've been a part of win a lot of football games. I don't think I've thrown a lot of touchdowns that didn't mean something. Any time you have a big lead, all the years I played in Indianapolis, the coaches would always take us out and if we were getting bad they'd take us out, so any ones that I've usually thrown usually resulted in our team trying to win the game or win the game so I think about it that way."

Adding the three Sunday to break Favre's record, in his 246 career regular-season games Manning has averaged 2.07 scoring passes per game over the course of his career, 2.89 scoring passes per game in his two-plus seasons with the Broncos.

Manning has now thrown 109 touchdown passes in 38 career starts for the Broncos. And the top four quarterbacks not named Manning in terms of touchdown passes thrown in a Broncos uniform -- Elway (300), Craig Morton (74), Jake Plummer (71) and Brian Griese (71) -- threw 516 combined touchdown passes with the Broncos."

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11731334/peyton-manning-denver-broncos-breaks-brett-favre-all-touchdown-pass-record

[Pies4shaw]

And so to the scores, so far in round 7:

the 49ers trail the Broncos 35:10 in the third quarter. Manning now has 4TD passes and Hillman has rushed another;

the Ravens pumped the Falcons 29:7;

Washington, with McCoy starting in place of Cousins at QB, just got home 19:17 over the Titans;

the Rams held on 28:26 to beat the Seahawks. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Maybe a fast wide-receiver/running back might have made the difference - Percy Harvin ain't saying...;

the Jaguars beat the Browns. That's right. No error there. 24:6 - it wasn't even close;

the Colts shut out the Bengals 27:0;

the Bills got over the Vikes 17:16;

the 'Aints snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and handed the Lions (very temporary) top of the NFC North: 24:23;

the Dolphins put the Bears well behind the Lions and the Pack in the NFC North race, winning 27:14. The Bears have lost all three of their home games so far;

in a big result, the Chiefs got over the Chargers 23:20, with a late TD;

the Cards pumped the Raiders 24:13;

the Cowboys beat the Giants 31:21, although the Giants did look better to me this week; and

Green Bay led the Panthers 38:3, before putting the cue in the rack, winning 38:17. For those of you who are statistically-minded, Rodgers is now just 302 TD throws behind Favre (and, as I write, 304 behind Peyton). Looking at it realistically, A-Rod is never going to catch The Great One's passing record - you'd think he'd have to play another 7 years, at least - and more likely 10 - to get there. Of course, all us Packer fans will be happy if he knocks off a few more Superbowls, instead.

[Pies4shaw]

Hillman rushes another one in from the 1 yard line and the Broncos lead the 49ers 42:10.

While I think about it, tomorrow's game is the Texans at the Steelers.

[OEP]

I'm starting to feel like a cursed supporter with all the injuries this year to the Pies and now my 49ers as well. I might start supporting the scum and chop blockers

[Pies4shaw]

Yep, things aren't going as well as they might for your boys. When there was a quarterback whose legs needed realignment yesterday, I was looking around for Aldon Smith. Looking forward to him getting his life in order and returning from suspension - if he's good to go, that might be the difference in the defensive game for the 49ers this year. Need to get a couple of wide receivers (back), though.