Aaron Rodgers put together another near-perfect performance for the undefeated Packers.

Cowboys rookie DeMarco Murray ran for 253 yards in relief of injured starter Felix Jones (and fumble-prone backup Tashard Choice), breaking a single-game franchise record set by Emmitt Smith in 1993.

Cam Newton continued his impressive freshman campaign, going 18-23 for 256 yards, rushing for another 59 yards, and scoring one touchdown through the air and one on the ground.

And Tim Tebow raised as many questions as he answered Sunday, struggling for much of the Broncos’ overtime win over the Dolphins before scoring 2 touchdowns and a 2-point conversion in the final 3 minutes of regulation.

These are the players whose names you read in headlines and whose highlights you saw on SportsCenter. But football is an 11-on-11 game, and most of this weekend’s winners wouldn’t have been successful without the contributions of several players who didn’t hear their names mentioned in the post-game press conference.

Here are just a few of the unsung heroes from Week 7 in the NFL:

James Anderson, Carolina Panthers linebacker

Cam Newton continued his campaign for Offensive Rookie of the Year Sunday by leading the Panthers to a 33-20 win over Washington. Steve Smith returned to 2008 form, catching 7 balls for 143 yards. But the Panthers’ offensive stars got plenty of help from players on the other side of the ball, particularly lineback James Anderson.

Anderson led Carolina in tackles with 12, including 10 solo tackles and 2 tackles for a loss, one of which was a sack of Washington QB John Beck. Anderson also recovered a fumble late in the second quarter, setting up a 45-yard field goal that gave the Panthers a 9-6 lead going into halftime.

Houston Texans offensive line

Last week the Baltimore Ravens defense sacked Texas quarterback Matt Schaub four times; two weeks ago, the Raiders sacked him thrice. Sunday, thanks to Texans tackles Duane Brown and Eric Winston and guards Wade Smith and Mike Brisiel, the Titans defenders never touched him.

The Texans went to Nashville on Sunday a half-game behind Tennessee in the AFC South. They left Tennessee with a 41-7 win and a half-game lead. In addition to protecting Schaub, the Texans’ O-line did a nice job opening lanes for Houston’s backfield tandem of Arian Foster and Ben Tate. Foster rushed for 115 yards on Sunday, Tate for 104.

If you have Arian Foster on your fantasy team, send thank you notes to the Texans offensive line. (Wade Payne/Associated Press)

Phil Dawson, Cleveland Browns placekicker

It may be a stretch to call anyone involved in Sunday’s 6–3 snoozer between Cleveland and Seattle a “hero,” unsung or otherwise. But Browns kicker Phil Dawson did everything that was asked of him and accounted for all 6 of Cleveland’s points.

The Browns’ offense didn’t make Dawson’s job easy. His first field goal attempt was from 52 yards out; the second was a 53-yarder. Dawson hit them both. Dawson also did a nice job with kick-offs. The Seahawks didn’t return any of Dawson’s kicks beyond their own 21 yard line.

Oh, and Dawson played most of the game with a bruised thigh.

Josh Scobee, Jacksonville Jaguars placekicker
Derek Cox, Jacksonville Jaguars cornerback

On Sunday the Browns’ Phil Dawson made 2 50-yard field goals. Monday night, the Jaguars’ Josh Scobee made 3, tying an NFL record. Scobee hit from 54, 54, 22, and 51 yards to score all 12 of Jacksonville’s points in Monday’s win over the Ravens.

While the Jaguars offense spent the game counting by 3s, the defense held the Ravens scoreless for nearly 58 minutes. Cornerback Derek Cox was particularly effective in containing Baltimore receivers Anquan Boldin and Torrey Smith. Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco struggled to hit Boldin and Smith down field and threw for a pedestrian 137 yards on 38 attempts.

There are kickers. And then there's Josh Scobee. (Kim Klement/US Presswire)

James Starks, Green Bay Packers running back

Even casual football fans know Aaron Rodgers, Clay Matthews, and Greg Jennings, the stars of the reigning Super Bowl-champion Green Bay Packers. But not everyone knows the Packers’ leading rusher, James Starks, who made only three appearances last season.

Starks’ numbers in Sunday’s game against Minnesota—13 carries for 75 yards—were solid but not spectacular. He accounted for 100 fewer yards than the Vikings’ Adrian Peterson. But Starks picked up three key first downs on the Packers’ final possession that clinched the game for Green Bay.

After falling behind in the first half, the Packers scored 20 points in the third quarter and led 33–17 heading into the fourth. Then the Vikings went on a run of their own, scoring a field goal and a touchdown on consecutive drives to cut the lead to 6.

With 2:30 remaining Minnesota punted from their own 36. The Vikings had a full complement of timeouts (plus the two-minute warning) and were hoping to get the ball back with time enough to score a winning touchdown. James Starks made sure that never happened.

On the first play from the Green Bay 20, Starks ran for 13 yards and a first down. The Vikings used a timeout. Two plays later, Starks ran for 20 yards and another first down, forcing the Vikings to use their final timeout. Three plays later, on 3rd and 7, Starks ran for yet another first down, enabling the Packers to run out the clock.

Virgil Green, Denver Broncos tight end

Virgil Green is listed as a tight end, but he earns his money playing special teams. And were it not for Green’s special teams heroics, no one would be fawning over Tim Tebow’s fourth-quarter performance against Miami on Sunday.

Tebow threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to Demaryius Thomas with 2:44 left in the game to cut Miami’s lead to 15–7. On the ensuing onside kick, Broncos kicker Matt Prater bounced the ball into the hands of leaping Dolphins receiver Marlon Moore. But Moore couldn’t hold onto the ball as he came down, and Green was there to pounce on it.

Green emerged from the pile with the ball, setting up Denver’s game-tying touchdown drive.

Tim Tebow should buy Virgil Green a beer. Or at least an iced tea. (Wikipedia)

Kansas City Chiefs secondary

The Oakland Raiders made headlines last week when they traded a first-round 2012 draft pick and a conditional second-round 2013 draft pick for discontented Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer. Oakland picked up Palmer to replace injured starter Jason Campbell. The Raiders made headlines on Sunday when Palmer and temporary starter Kyle Boller combined for 6 interceptions and zero touchdowns against Kansas City.

While residents of the Black Hole should be concerned about—perhaps even frightened by—their team’s quarterback play, the Chiefs secondary deserves some credit for shutting down the Raiders’ passing game.

Early in the first quarter, Chiefs safety Kendrick Lewis intercepted an errant Boller pass and took into the end zone to put the Kansas City on the board. Corner Brandon Flowers picked off Boller in the first quarter and Palmer in the fourth. He returned the second pick for a touchdown. Cornerbacks Brandon Carr and Travis Daniels and safety Jon McGraw also recorded interceptions against the Raiders on Sunday.

NFL UK

76,981 people watched the Bears beat the Buccaneers Sunday at London’s Wembley Stadium. That’s a few thousand fewer than have attended past games at Wembley. But unlike previous London games, no one knew whether this game would happen until late July. If the lockout hadn’t ended by August 1, the Week 7 game between the Bears and Bucs would have been in Tampa. Owners and players reached an agreement on July 25, leaving the NFL UK (the league’s London office) scrambling to prepare for the league’s annual international showcase. Considering the quick turnaround, 76,981 is a respectable number (especially since only a handful of NFL stadiums seat as many people).

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Now that two of the franchise’s most productive players this decade are not playing, the Browns chances of pulling off a shocking road upset look even more bleak.

Running back Jamal Lewis has been dealing with an injured hamstring and did not practice today or yesterday. Though the Browns and (and Lewis fantasy owners) had hoped that Jamal would be able to give it a go, the latest injury update on Lewis, via PFT, is that he is not playing tomorrow.

In fact, he did not even make the trip to Baltimore. Jerome Harrison is expected to pick up the bulk of the work in Lewis’ absence, with help from rookie James Davis.

Another Browns veteran who is not accompanying the team to Baltimore is kicker Phil Dawson, who is dealing with a strained calf according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter (via PFT). Dawson will be replaced tomorrow by former Dallas Cowboy Billy Cundiff.

Of course, if the game goes as most people think it will (including me), there won’t be much for Cundiff to do. I obviously hope that I and everyone is wrong, but it’s hard to have hope after the first two weeks of the season.

It all started on Wednesday when, buoyed by my fantasy baseball team’s hot start (my team and another have already opened up a double-digit lead on the pack in a H2H league), I decided to take to the message boards with some thinly veiled trash talk at the rest of league. My team is playing the other top team next weekend so I posed the question of whether or not it was the biggest H2H matchup in May in the history of fantasy baseball – a reasonable question I think. Naturally, my hitters have struggled and my pitchers have been awful this week.

Then, on Wednesday, the Cavs were surprised by the Magic in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. After watching the Cavs dominate in the first quarter, I thought it would turn into another Pistons/Hawks rout. Not so much. The Magic proved that they would be worthy Eastern Conference Finals adversaries, and if they needed any more motivation for tonight and the rest of the series Mo Williams decided to give them some: “I don’t feel this team can beat us four times. I don’t see them beating us four times.”

The only problem, of course, is that the Magic have beaten the Cavs 9 out of the last 12 times they’ve played (at least, that was the stat tossed out on the radio today) and lead the series 1-0. I’m thinking a more humble approach would work here; but the the proof will be in the pudding tonight.

Anyway, back to the B.S.

So I wake up on Thursday morning to the exciting news that the White Sox are surprisingly making a hard charge to get Jake Peavy. I run into the office and post about it here on MSF, leave to teach a class at the SBDC here in town, and then get back and hear that it’s all up to No-Trade Peavy whether the deal will go down or not.

Always willing to do anything necessary to help my teams win, I get the completely misguided inspired idea to start an online petition to show Jake Peavy support from White Sox fans. In my insanity zeal to somehow make a difference, I convince myself that I can promote the petition, get tens of thousands of White Sox fans to sign it, and it gets added to the “Pro” list Jake Peavy is making as he weighs his options. Then he comes to Chicago, ultimately does an interview with MSF, leads the White Sox to the World Series, and his sublime K/BB ratio inspires Iran and Israel to schedule a Texas-style square dance at which they will squash their difference and lead a united front for peace in the Middle East.

Well, we all know what happened. A measly nine people signed my measly petition and Jake Peavy pretty quickly soon thereafter decided to stay with San Diego. Oh, and then the White Sox got shellacked 20-1, as if we needed to feel any worse after getting jilted at the alter.

I would go into more detail about my thoughts on Jake Peavy and the White Sox from yesterday, but Bobby from Tremendous Upside Potential pretty much said everything I was already thinking. Hop on over to TUP and read his post.

(By the way, the sublimely perfect picture to see there of an unnamed White Sox fan on his back was lifted from PhotoBucket, courtesy of the aptly named profile “White Sox Suck.” Ridiculous.)

So, that all kind of sucked. In more positive news, Josh Cribbs visited the Browns facility yesterday and even took part in a team meeting, although he is still not taking part in any on-field activities. But the fact that he is having dialogue with Mangini at least appears to be a positive step in the right direction on the surface. And Brady Quinn has apparently vaulted into the lead for the Browns QB race, mostly by virtue of the fact that Eric Mangini had to pick someone to take the first team reps. I just can’t get excited about our QB situation heading into this season after the debacle of last year. Every time I think about Quinn and Anderson is reminds of my favorite South Park episode…

And on that same subject, why is Phil Dawson not attending the voluntary minicamp? Purportedly he wants a new contract, to which I would respond: “Dude, you’re a kicker, and we were 4-12 last year.” The way I look at it, kickers get new contracts when things are good and everyone else has been taken care of. I realize that Phil Dawson was perhaps the Browns’ most valuable player last year, but shouldn’t that be a clear sign to Browns management that we need to spend money elsewhere to upgrade our roster? I love you Phil, I really do, and I think you’re a great kicker. But consider the timing. A 4-12 team probably has bigger fish to fry than a solid, but still pretty replaceable kicker. (Or as my old high school buddy Ssengats might call him, “a piece of equipment.”)

Before I being the work day, time to pass a little love along to some of our good friends here at MSF.

The guys over at Sharapova’s Thigh continue to entertain with their Random Retro Baseball Player series. The most recent highlight? Mark Gubicza, who was a pretty good pitcher for the Royals. Now, feel free to go to the Sharapova’s Thigh home page and scroll down. You will not be disappointed, as Mark Gubicza is clearly the least attractive person pictured. The fact that I have chosen the post about Gubicza to link to, when I could have chosen any number of hot chicks now has me wondering if I am way too obsessed with baseball…

Next, step over to Hugging Harold Reynolds (my favorite blog name ever, by the way). We are always proud to support any post that includes a picture of Ben Roethlisberger looking like a drunk neanderthal.

Our buddies at Sparty and Friends have uncovered the movie poster for Spike Lee’s next film about Michael Vick doin’ work.

Robert Littal, the bona fide sports expert, has a post that includes something you don’t see every day: criticism of LeBron James. For its uniqueness alone, I send you over there.

And finally, I sent you on your way this morning with a link over to Josh Q. Public, who is already on his way to a weekend of ridiculous fun in Las Vegas. Since I’ve never been there before, I figured I’d try to live vicariously through the Elvis Presley video he posted yesterday. Not surprisingly, it didn’t work. But we here at MSF always support weekends of irresponsibility, debauchery, and good old male bonding. Have fun out there JQ. Thanks for making me even less excited about my work day today.

But after getting the ball back Browns quarterback Brady Quinn, in his first start on the road, only managed to move the ball 28 yards to give kicker Phil Dawson a nearly impossible task of making a 56-yard field goal amidst the swirling winds inside Ralph Wilson Stadium, Orchard Park, N.Y.

Dawson nailed it.

And the score was 29-27 Browns, with time enough on the clock to give Buffalo kicker Rian Lindell a chance to hit a 47-yard line for the win. But a cross wind pushed the ball wide right with just 38 seconds to go, and the Browns escaped its third consecutive game of blowing 13-point leads only to lose in the end.

When the referees signaled “no good”, the Browns sideline erupted in jumping high fives, while Quinn looked up to the gray skies to give thanks.

For once Lady Luck – or perhaps the luck of the Irish – was on Cleveland’s side. Afterward, Browns Head Coach Romeo Crennel described Dawson as “money.”

On the down side: Missed tackles continue to plague the Browns.

Trent Edwards threw three interceptions in the first quarter, alone, but the Browns came away with just six points.

Also, a deep pass to Braylon Edwards on the Buffalo five yard line in the first quarter had “touchdown” written all over it, but Edwards could not hang on.

On the up side: On the first play in the third quarter, Jerome Harrison caught a pitch-out from Quinn and sprinted down the field for a 72-yard touchdown run – his first.

At about midnight, the Browns climbed aboard the team bus for the trip back to Cleveland. It had begun to snow and they would have a short week to prepare for Houston Texans on Sunday.

Brady Quinn completed just 14 of 36 passes Monday night, but he led the Browns in the final two minutes to a game-winning field goal.

(Photo of Brady Quinn courtesy of Chuck Crow — The Plain Dealer)

[tags]cleveland browns, brady quinn, monday night football[/tags]

What a relief of a victory. More than excitement or joy I just feel relieved. We had a lead, gave it away, came within inches of blowing a third straight heartbreaker…but finally we got a break at the end of a game tonight. It wasn’t perfect in any way, it doesn’t mean that the Browns have turned any corners, and it doesn’t mean that we can start talking seriously about the playoffs again (yet.).

What it means is that for one night we were able to make one more play than the opposing team. And that in and of itself feels good enough after the last two weeks.

And what is it about the Browns on Monday night? And about the Browns fanatics here on Midwest Sports Fans being able to predict the outcomes of the Monday night games? Ryan Russell came through this afternoon with his official guarantee of a Browns victory. I went against my gut and picked the Browns. Why? Because I happened to see that the Browns had a better record on Monday Night Football.

What were they keys to tonight’s 29-27 victory? Exactly what any reasonable Browns fan would predict before the game:

1. Braylon Edwards had to step up. He did. Whether it was because the game was on Monday night or because he finally found some focus or because Brady Quinn just kept going back to him, all that matters is that Braylon stepped up. 8 catches, 104 yards. Well done overall Braylon, but still too many drops of catchable balls.
2. 3 carries, 80 yards, and a TD. 1 reception, 21 yards on a key drive. Who is the masked man? Who else. Jerome Harrison. 4 touches and over 100 yards. Unbelievable. I’m excited that Jerome Harrison had the opportunity to make HUGE plays that put the Browns in a position to win, and I’m almost just as pissed off that he only got four touches. PLEASE ROB CHUDZINSKI — GET THE BALL TO JEROME MORE!
3. Kellen Winslow only had 3 catches for 40 yards, but his third catch on the final drive was huge. Without it, Phil Dawson probably does not have a chance to kick his game-winning field goal. It was a quiet night for Kellen, but he came up clutch in a huge moment. And I don’t want to forget about Brady Quinn either. The numbers weren’t great, and he made a couple of awful decisions in the 4th quarter and was lucky to see those passes slip through the fingers of Buffalo’s defenders. But he rebounded and got us in position for the game-winner. He’s a QB — that’s what matters.
4. Phil Dawson. Easily gets the game ball tonight. I predicted 4 field goals, and he did me one better. Five field goals, including the game-winning 56 yarder. Is it just me, or does Phil Dawson seem to have a 3-5 yard stronger leg this year? If he was a baseball player, steroids rumors would be swirling! (Clarification: I am not in ANY insinuating Phil Dawson would ever take steroids. Just making a joke. Sadly, I feel like I need to clarify this.)

Funny anecdote: While driving home from my brother’s Meet the Players Night for his high school basketball game, after Phil Dawson’s first field goal, I called Ryan Russell and left him a message. In the message, I sang “Dawson, he’s Phil Dawson, with the strongest leg in history!” to the tune of Flintstone’s.

I personally wasn’t thinking 56 yards strong. But Halelujah! It was.

I’ll probably post more tomorrow. Great win tonight for the Browns, no matter how ugly. Sometimes a team, an organization, a coach, a fan base, a city just needs a victory. Cleveland, its fans, and the Browns were desperate for a victory tonight. And we got one against another desperate team in their house.

Well done Browns. You showed fight and character tonight. No one quit. And I can’t help but think that it was the will of an entire Browns nation that pushed that kick right. Hyperbole? Perhaps. But thanks to Phil Dawson and the Browns I can even entertain that glorious thought.

[tags]cleveland browns, nfl, monday night football[/tags]