Every Sunday Sky Sports is showing no fewer than FIVE live NFL games. And every week here on skysports.com the one and only Kevin Cadle will preview the three main matches...
Tampa Bay @ Atlanta
The worst thing that could have happened to Atlanta was that Tampa defeat by Carolina.
That will not happen again, I can tell you that straight away. It was just one of those one-off days, bad days at the office, when nothing went their way.
Romo: can he handle it?
Once that tree started to fall, it was only going one way. It gathered more and more momentum and things went from bad to worse. But it won't happen again and it won't happen with the NFC South leadership on the line.
One reason is that - although there is just one win between them - Tampa Bay is a much better all-round football team that Atlanta. They have the maturity and whereas a team like Atlanta may be able compete athletically, it is that experience that will come into play at this stage of the season.
This is crunch time, Dallas! It's time for those players, who are all experienced, to stand up and be counted. They are up against the Giants and if they lose their season is over, so what more do you need? Apart from drama?
Kevin Cadle
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And if there is one defense that is going to motivated in Week 15, it is Tampa's. The fact that DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart ran right through them last week means that Michael Turner is really gonna have a tough task on his hands to make any impact here.
The Falcons do have a decent balance about them on offense, though. Turner is having a tremendous season and for a rookie, Matt Ryan is proving plenty of people wrong.
Maybe he and the Falcons' best wide receiver, Roddy White (both pictured), might be able to do something here, but then again even those Tampa defensive backs will have a point to prove - Ronde White certainly had his worst game for a long time.
Thre is no point them picking over what went wrong last week because there was a million and one things. They can forget all that and just get their focus back for this.
CADLE'S CALL: It has to be Tampa. They are the better football team and what happened last week will have hurt. It's not gonna happen two games in a row.
Pittsburgh @ Baltimore
This is just one rough, tough old football game!
It's the appetiser for New York Giants against Dallas, but will be just as hard-hitting - and much colder - and you will see two mean old defenses going head-to-head.
Neither side does that much different defensively, and this might well boil down to which offense can come up with one of its good days.
And if you are looking for that to happen, then you have to say Pittsburgh has the better offense. For Baltimore's rookie quarterback, Joe Flacco, everything has been new territory this season, but he's coming up against a defensive unit on it's game, with so much riding on it.
Last week he didn't show anything but that Ravens defense came through for him. This week he knows Pittsburgh are gonna come after him, sit him down and we'll have to wait and see how he handles that.
His opposite number Ben Roethlisberger will get sacked, we know that, but I just think he has a better feel of what to do in a game like this than Flacco does.
He will have to go out wide though because Ed Reed (pictured) and his pals have been picking people off all season, but Santonio Holmes and Hines Ward are receivers that can trouble teams.
Pittsburgh also have a better running game and you would guess that the Ravens' best hope is to let their defense try and get at them and turn the ball over. But then they've got to make sure Flacco and that offense keep hold of it.
That to me is where the one difference between these two sides lies: Flacco and his offense will make some turnovers and that will cost them.
CADLE'S CALL: I think Steelers can go to Baltimore and win, on the strength of their defense and simply because going forward, they will make fewer mistakes.
New York Giants @ Dallas
Dallas know that if they lose this, that's it.
If the play-off places were handed out on the basis of talent, they would have no problem at all. But Dallas has a major problem: they are not a team.
They are just a bunch of talented individuals, more so than anybody else, but it is just not a team.
Because of that, they just don't perform unless there is a whole lot of drama going on. That's how this Dallas Cowboys outfit operates.
Unfortunately for them last week, all the drama came during the fourth quarter and therefore in the media afterwards. And it all came for Tony Romo, who just blew that football match. If you're up by 10 in the fourth quarter and you end up losing, there is nowhere else to look.
Especially when the Dallas defense did their job, kept focussed. But Romo can concentrate for three quarters, maybe a bit more, but I am not sure you can count on him when it comes to the crunch.
And this is crunch time, Dallas! It's time for those players, who are all experienced, to stand up and be counted. They are up against the Giants and if they lose their season is over, so what more do you need? Apart from drama?
That is what the Giants have been dealing with, although to be fair, they have been used to playing without Plaxico Buress all season long.
Of course it's gonna make you stop and think when your wide receiver shoots himself in the foot in a nightclub, but their biggest concern will be getting Brandon Jacobs (pictured) back on the field.
He limped off last week to cap one of those days where nothing happened for them. The game was lost on the offensive side of the ball because Philly just came good.
Philly kept the ball for 35 minutes which is unusual, ran and passed and I think they caught the Giants were just caught out, having expected them to come and pass the ball.
But New York will be switched on this time. One thing is they are coming off that loss, and heck, this is the Dallas Cowboys! They also understand what happens, from last year, that once you're in the play-offs you can't afford to think you've arrived, that's it.
They still want that number one seed in the NFC as well, because as good as they are on the road, there really is no place like home, especially in the play-offs.
But maybe Dallas can just conjur up something to get those superstars performing!
CADLE'S CALL: Dallas will have been challenged this week and maybe that will be what they need. I expect there to be plenty of opportunities on offense and if Jacobs is not fully fit for New York, then I expect Romo and co to come good in the Texas Stadium.


















Comments (4)
Barry j Taylor says...
Hi Kevin, I disagree with the comment that Cowboys will win tonight, Romo has not looked anywhere near his best and i just think this week after losing to the Eagles that Eli will come up big tonight. They may have top placing in playoffs but i just think without Burress and Hixon as a replacement he can come up with something big. He nearly pulled of an 85yarder last week know knows if he is given chance tonight so my picks Giants over Cowboys Jets to pip the Bills and get back to winning ways(hopefully that means a passsing TD for Brett) Steelers will beat Ravens and my outside bet of this round is Vikings to pip the cardinals to the post. Gooooooo J-E-T-S !!!!!
Posted 10:51 14th December 2008
Andrew Solomou says...
If Tony Romo can look after the ball and get T.O involved Dallas win!!!! Simple as that!!!
Posted 00:04 13th December 2008
Sam Butterworth says...
i disagree with the steelers ravens call i think the ravens will pull through because the steelers havent won in baltimore since 2002. Also despite Flacco being a rookie he is playing like a veteran with passer rating of 81.7 better than big bens 80. Cam Cameron has also done wonders fro the baltimore offense and personally i think baltimores offense is better. That may be because im a ravens fan.
Posted 20:41 12th December 2008
Rui Pina says...
Kevin, I'm a Cowboys fan but these guys are overrated, Romo is not Aikman, Irvin was a team guy (unlike TO), Emmit is milles ahead of Barber and this OL is not near Stepnowski, Newman, Williams, etc. Only Wittman is at the same level of Novacek and maybe D. Ware of Charles Haley. So let's not compare these guys to those in the 90's, this team won't repeat...unfortunately!
Posted 15:25 12th December 2008