Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/94909
2B Daily News – Thursday, November 22, 2012 NFL | Houston at Detroit today at 9:30 a.m. Texans playing for playoff spot Texans have put themselves in a posi- tion to be the NFL's first team to seal a spot in the playoffs and to move a step closer toward earning home-field advantage in the AFC. Houston (9-1) has won four straight and is 4-0 on the road this season, giving the Texans a great shot to be in consecutive postseasons for the first time. "It shows the progress we've made," said tight end Owen Daniels, who has been with the franchise for seven of its 11 years of existence. "A few years ago, it took us until the end of the season to get that ninth win. We're at that ninth win already. "We're trying to stack 'em up, but it's good that those are possibilities this early in the season." DETROIT (AP) — The Houston or anything else," Lions coach Jim Schwartz said. "We're thinking about the Houston Texans and that's plenty for us to think about right now." Like all good teams, the Texans have proven they can win even when they don't play well. Houston trailed the lowly Jack- Houston needs to win at Detroit (4-6) on Thursday and have a handful of teams lose, or tie, to earn a post- season bid by the end of the weekend. The Lions, meanwhile, will have to pull off a string of upsets against a slew of good teams to reach the fran- chise's goal of making it to consecu- tive postseasons for the first time since the mid-1990s. Just when it looked like Detroit was living up to the hype generated with last year's breakout season by winning three of four games to climb back .500 earlier this month, the Lions lost two in a row. And that has made last season seem more like an aberration than the start of successful run for a floundering franchise that hit rock bottom in 2008 as the NFL's first 0-16 team. "We're not thinking about playoffs and Johnson set a personal best with 273 yards receiving. His franchise- record fifth touchdown pass was a screen to Johnson, who did the rest on a 48-yard score for the game-win- ner. sonville Jaguars last week at home by 14 points in the fourth quarter before rallying for a 43-37 win in overtime. The Texans' defense, which has been among the NFL's best all year, struggled until it made stops when they were needed. It didn't hurt that quarterback Matt Schaub and receiv- er Andre Johnson had career-best games. Schaub connected on 43 passes for 527 yards passing, both totals tying for second most in league history, NFL | Washington at Dallas today at 1:15 p.m. RGIII doesn't fret Thanksgiving rivalry IRVING, Texas (AP) — Robert Griffin III, the Texas- bred quarterback who won the Heisman Trophy at Baylor, comes to his home state for the first time as a pro for the most traditional of Thanksgiving rivalries — Cowboys vs. Red- skins. Hold on a minute with all that drama and emotion build- ing for Thursday's game. The Washington rookie grew up in Central Texas rooting for the Denver Broncos. themselves in the playoff con- versation by coming off the bye with a 31-6 blowout of Philadelphia, sparked by 14 of 15 passing and four touch- downs from Griffin. A win puts the Cowboys (5-5) a half-game behind the New York Giants in the NFC East five days after they risked ruining their season against last-place Cleveland before winning 23-20 in over- time. The Redskins (4-6) kept "It's one game and that's what we've got," Griffin said. "We've got the Dallas Cowboys, and that's what I'm going to play like." Hold on another minute before deciding he is complete- ly blowing off the pretty cool idea that he's coming home for a big game on a unique stage. He gets it. familiar faces," Griffin said. "It's Cowboys-Redskins or Red- skins-Cowboys, whatever way you want to put it. Me being a Texas kid, I know how big the rivalry is and I get my fair shot at it." "It will be fun. I'll see a lot of "It started for us two weeks back," Romo said. "We've been putting our head down and grinding, going forward and trying put together win after win." 100, completing 67 percent of his passes with 12 touchdowns and just three interceptions. The Redskins lost six of eight after Griffin's remarkable debut in a win at New Orleans, so maybe it was easy to forget about him. He sort of reminded everyone by picking apart the Eagles. He's also in the top 20 in rushing in the NFL with 613 yards. The next quarterback is Cam Newton at 394. The Cow- boys have faced both. "You can't really go into a Griffin has practical reasons for approaching Thursday's game as one Washington needs to win. Dallas quarterback Tony Romo does, too. The Cowboys have played the Redskins more than any other team in their annual Thanksgiving home game, and Dallas has won all six previous meetings. The Cowboys also are trying to win their fourth straight against Washington, which would be the longest streak in eight years. But the Redskins haven't brought a quarterback like Grif- fin into this game in a long time. Statistically, he's ahead of the other four rookies who began the season as starters, and he's right there with most of the veterans. He's one of six quar- terbacks with a rating of at least game worried about this guy scrambling because it will slow you up and probably put you in a worse situation than just try- ing to go after him," said Dallas defensive end Marcus Spears. "Obviously, we have to have awareness of where he is and where he can escape." Griffin isn't the only runner the Redskins have. Another rookie, Alfred Morris, is fifth in the league with 869 yards rush- ing, and Washington is one of four teams with two games of 200-plus yards on the ground this season. Redskins, and backup Felix Jones is battling a knee injury that could limit him. Without those two, the Cowboys would have to rely on a pair of undraft- ed players in rookie Lance Dun- bar and Phillip Tanner. In five games without Murray, the Cowboys have rushed for 100 yards once. "We've shuffled guys through, but it hasn't just been there, it's been everywhere real- ly," Romo said. "Our offensive line, we've had to move guys around and do different things." Romo was sacked a career- and even linebacker London Fletcher is in danger of missing a game for the first time in his 15-year career. He's tied with Tampa Bay's Ronde Barber for the league's longest active streak at 234 straight games, but he injured an ankle last week- end against the Eagles and faced the short week of recov- ery time. The Dallas running game is struggling through the extended absence of starter DeMarco Murray and an offensive line that is also battling injuries. Murray is likely to miss his sixth straight game against the NFL | New England at New York Jets today at 5:30 p.m. Gronkowski out, but no sighs of relief from New York EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — There were no sighs of relief, no jumps for joy when the New York Jets found out they wouldn't have to worry about Rob Gronkowski this week. Sure, the New England Patriots lost perhaps the league's top playmaking tight end for a few weeks with a broken fore- arm. But Rex Ryan's team knew better than to celebrate. "I don't know," Ryan said, shaking his head. "They have five tight ends on their roster, so I don't know if they'll put anoth- er guy in that role. I'm not sure how they'll do it." know. We'll see." Sounds as though Belichick, one win from becoming the eighth NFL coach with 200 victories, has something up his hoodie. Just as he always does. Gronkowski or no Gronkowski, the Patri- ots still have Brady, of course, and that's enough for anyone in New England to feel confident. Brady was asked earlier this week if If Ryan has learned anything in his nearly four seasons as coach of the Jets, it's that Bill Belichick usually finds a way to win no matter who's out there — or isn't — on the field for the Patriots. Ryan also knows New England can change the personnel, but as long as it's still Tom Brady's bunch, it'll be a tough task. "When you look at him," Ryan said, "you can almost say he's a machine back there." Gronkowski seemed to be in a decent mood when the two spoke. "I haven't been thinking about his spir- its," Brady said. "I've been thinking about the Jets." Uh-oh. And Ryan is right about the Patriots' glut of tight ends. Aaron Hernandez could return for the game against the Jets (4-6) Thursday night at MetLife Stadium after missing the last three with a sprained right ankle, and New England also has Daniel Fells, Visanthe Shiancoe and Michael Hoomanawanui at the position. "New England is so multiple, they give you sometimes it could be four wides, five wides, could be a bunch of tight ends and all that," Ryan said. "So, we'll see as the game goes how it affects them." Belichick was typically tight-lipped when asked if the loss of Gronkowski will change the offense for the Patriots (7-3). "Well, we'll see," he said. "I don't A focused and determined Brady is certainly cause for concern for the Jets. "He's going to be Brady," safety LaRon Landry said. "He's going to com- plete passes and he's going to be great out there. We are going against a tough quar- terback." Talk about an understatement. Brady needs one touchdown pass to extend his streak with at least one to 43 straight games — third-longest in league history behind Drew Brees (53 and counting) and Johnny Unitas (47). He has 51 career 300-yard passing games in the regular season, and one more would put him into tie for fifth place with Kurt Warner. Brady also needs 86 yards passing to move past Dan Fouts (43,040) for 10th place on NFL's career list. The Jets know all about it, too. Brady is 4-0 with 10 TDs and one interception in his last four regular-season games against them. He's 17-5 overall when playing New York, including New England's playoff loss in the 2010 postseason. The Patriots have also been dominant in the second halves of seasons since 2010, going a combined 18-0 so far — including 8-0 in both 2010 and '11, and 2- 0 this season. That doesn't bode well for a Jets team trying to get back into the play- off hunt after a miserable start. "This is a very important game for our season, so I'm not overly concerned with their season," Brady said. "I think about what our season is all about and what we need to do. This is a very good team. It's always very challenging to play them, especially on the road. It's a short week and there's a lot to prepare for, so it will really test our mental toughness and see what we're all about." Well, the entire league already knows that the Patriots' top-ranked offense is efficient and explosive, as proven by their 59-24 walloping of Indianapolis on Sun- day. Brady leads a steady passing game, and a four-man rotation of Stevan Ridley, Danny Woodhead, Shane Vereen and Brandon Bolden gives New England a productive and unpredictable rushing attack. "The thing about him is he's a machine, yet he's passionate and a fiery leader and all that type of stuff, so you wish he was just a machine," Ryan said. "His competitive side elevates his team as well. That's what you get in those once- in-a-generation type quarterbacks, that he's just a special guy." ots' offense for much of the game the last time the teams played last month in a 29- 26 overtime victory by New England that New York thought was theirs for the tak- ing. The Jets handled Brady and the Patri- and they got the victory," Ryan said. "We know each other so well. We know "When it mattered most, he delivered enough of Tom Brady to know if he knows exactly what you're in, you're in trouble." That game ended when Rob Ninkovich forced and recovered a fumble by Mark Sanchez, moments after Stephen Gostkowski kicked a go-ahead field goal in overtime. It started a string of three straight losses for the Jets, who appeared on the verge of seeing their season slip away until a solid performance last week in St. Louis. Sanchez was efficient and mistake-free for the first time in weeks, giving the Jets plenty of hope heading into this matchup with the Patriots. "They played really well against St. Louis if you watched that game," Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker said. "They're a physical team. They got to the quarter- back. They forced some negative plays for them and really did some good things. So, they got some momentum coming off that game and we've just got to make sure that we keep our momentum going." Both teams are cramming to prepare for their second game in five days, a short work week for such a big game. For the Jets, a win would get them within a game of .500 and avoid a sweep by the Patriots for the second straight sea- son. For New England, it would put them in control of the division at 4-0 with just two games against Miami left and send New York scrambling to stay in the wild- card hunt. "You look at this as a chance to sepa- rate yourself from the rest of the pack," Patriots linebacker Jerod Mayo said. "We handled the Bills and now this is a big game for us to kind of distance our- selves." high seven times by the Browns behind a line that started the game with a new center and a replacement guard, and ended up having to fill in for left tack- le Tyson Smith when he sprained an ankle. One of the few constants, right tackle Doug Free, has been the focus of questions all week after he was beaten repeatedly by Cleveland. "Every game you can look at it and say I did this wrong, I did that wrong," Free said. "Some are worse than others, but I mean every game you've got things to work on, things to fix. You've got to stay focused on the task at hand." The Washington defense has lost several starters to injury, "It matters to London. It mat- ters to us, not necessarily the streak, but playing," Redskins coach Mike Shanahan said. "And there is a reason why he has played all those games because he plays when he is hurt and hopefully he will be able to play." Griffin will play, and plenty of folks from the hometown of Copperas Cove, Texas, will be at Cowboys Stadium, where he's 1-0 after beating Texas Tech in a neutral site game for the Bears last year, although he left early with concussion-like symptoms. "He's kind of a different guy," Shanahan said. "He's pret- ty relaxed no matter where he goes or who he's with. It just seems like he's pretty cool, calm and collected. He handles dif- ferent stages as good as any- body I've been around." "You just never know in this league week to week what kind of game you're going to be in and we got caught in a shootout type of game with a lot of offense," Houston coach Gary Kubiak said. "We were fortu- nate enough to find a way to win." Detroit did enough to lose 24-20 to the Green Bay Packers last week at home, where it had plenty of opportu- nities to get a much-needed win. The Lions' woes were made worse by a significant injury and distraction. Left tackle Jeff Backus couldn't ning to groom him as player to even- tually replace Backus. The rookie might have to take on defensive end J.J. Watt, who ranks among NFL leaders with 111⁄2 sacks and leads all defensive linemen in the league with 11 passes defended. Houston, though, won't have to finish the first half because of a ham- string injury, which seemed to be in his right leg, and his 186-game start- ing streak that includes every game of his career is expected to end Thurs- day. "It's hard to replace a rock that's been there for 12 years," said veteran center Dominic Raiola. "It's just dif- ferent without him out there." Detroit drafted Riley Reiff with the 23rd pick overall this year, plan- worry about No. 2 receiver Titus Young taking advantage of one-one- one coverage because the Lions announced Monday he would be inactive because of his "unaccept- able" behavior during the game against the Packers. "When you're a player, it's your job to make the team happy," Schwartz said. "It's not the team's job to make you happy." Lions fans have not been happy when it comes to Thanksgiving Day results. Detroit has lost a franchise-record eight straight on the holiday — by an average of three-plus touchdowns — and has only one victory in the last 12 games in its annual showcase after winning 11 of 16 games from 1989- 2000.