Former Michigan Athlete of the Week: Chad Henne

Tag: Mario Manningham

29Nov 2012
Uncategorized no comments

Former Michigan Athlete of the Week: Chad Henne

Chad Henne led his team to a 24-19 victory over the Tennessee Titans despite being sacked an unbelievable seven times.  The victory is only the second of the season for Jacksonville, and the win marks Henne’s first start of the season after beating out the tenth overall selection of the 2011 NFL Draft, QB Blaine Gabbert.  Henne went 17/26 passing for 261 yards with two touchdowns and one interception in the win.  Henne’s play has improved greatly since his days in Miami, and his passer rating on the season is now an even 100.  Mike Martin had one tackle in the game for the Titans.

Honorable Mention:  Mario Manningham, Henne’s former go-to wide receiver, had a 40-yard reception in the first half of his 49ers win over the New Orleans Saints.  He finished the game with five receptions for 69 yards.  He now has 36 receptions for 412 yards on the season.

Miscellaneous:  

  • Stevie Brown had three tackles as his Giants beat up on the Packers
  • Brady Threw for 323 yards and three touchdowns; he rushed for another score.  He would be mentioned above, but I’m sick of writing about Tom Brady.
  • David Harris leads the Jets in tackles and had ten in a loss to the Patriots.
4Oct 2012
Uncategorized no comments

Former Michigan Athlete of the Week: Tom Brady

Courtesy of Boston.com

The Patriots were down 21-7 in the third quarter to the Buffalo Bills before Tom Brady led his team on six straight touchdown scoring drives to pull out a comfortable 52-28 win.  Brady ended the game with 340 yards through the air and three touchdowns.  The performance put him into 11th place on the NFL’s all-time passing list.  The Patriots are 2-2.

Honorable Mention:  Charles Woodson, now back to playing safety full time, tallied eleven total tackles and one pass break up as the Packers rallied for a 28-27 victory over the New Orleans Saints.  His team is also 2-2.

Miscellaneous:

  • Stevie Brown keeps giving me reasons to write about him.  Brown stepped in for the injured Kenny Phillips against Philadelphia on Sunday Night Football and ended the game with seven total tackles.
  • Mario Manningham isn’t putting up gaudy stats, but he’s staying
    consistent.  Super Mario has at least three catches in every game so far
    this year.  He has 160 yards through four games.
  • After catching 61 balls last year, Steve Breaston only has four catches in 2012.
  • Alan Branch recorded his first sack of the year.
25Mar 2012
Uncategorized no comments

NFL Wolverines: Manningham, Hutchinson, Henne Find New Teams

Mario Manningham is a 49er

NFL free agency kicked off at 4:00 p.m. on March 13 and that lead to some shuffling of former Michigan athletes. We’ll find out where all of them land when I get around to updating the list of Wolverines in the NFL, but for now, here’s the rundown of the high-profile movers.
Mario Manningham is headed to San Francisco after signing a two-year contract worth up to 7.3 million dollars – a good chunk of coin but significantly less than top-flight wide receiver money. Manningham fought a knee injury for much of last year and had the least productive regular season of his career, finishing with 39 catches for 523 yards. However, his playoff performances and Super Bowl heroics contributed to a healthy market for his services, which the Giants could not afford with two solid wide receivers, Victor Cruz and Hakeem Nicks, already on their roster. Manningham joins a 49ers receiving unit that includes former Buckeye and first-round draft pick Ted Ginn Jr., former first-rounder Michael Crabtree, and all-time receiving great Randy “straight cash, homie” Moss.
Steve Hutchinson isn’t the dominant All-Pro left guard that he used to be, but the 34-year-old is still good enough to command a three-year contract from the Tennessee Titans. Hutchinson – who has pancake blocked the way to 1,000 yard rushing seasons for Adrian Peterson, Shaun Alexander and Chester Taylor – will now be paving the way for speedster Chris Johnson, one of the league’s most exciting running backs.

Chad Henne separated his non-throwing shoulder in early October of last year, which caused him to miss the remainder of the 2011 season. Actually, the injury was “more severe than a separated shoulder,” according to Henne. But he still drew attention when he hit the open market, first from the Seattle Seahawks and then from the Jacksonville Jaguars, where he signed a two-year deal worth $6.75 million. Henne will compete with the 2011 NFL Draft’s 10th overall selection Blaine Gabbert for Jacksonville’s starting spot. Through four years in the NFL, Henne has more interceptions (37) than touchdowns (31) and an unimpressive 75.7 passer rating, but it doesn’t sound like he’s ready to concede anything yet. “I’m a fierce competitor. I will do everything I can to get that job.”
9Feb 2012
Uncategorized 3 comments

Former Michigan Athletes of the Week: Mario Manningham and the Super Bowl Wolverines

One, two . . . yep, that’s two feet. And a legend is made. Mario Manningham.

Eight former Michigan athletes were represented on the biggest stage of all this Super Bowl Sunday in SB XLVI, which, of course, was won by the Giants, 21-17. Here’s a recap of each player’s performance in order of their impact on the game:

Mario Manningham: In a microcosm of his season, Manningham had a rough start, but came on strong late. In the first half, he was targeted only one or two times and failed to haul in a catchable deep ball. In the second half, however, Manningham came up with the play of the game and was targeted four straight times during the game winning drive. Manningham finished with five catches for 73 yards, with most of that coming in crunch time, and announcer Chris Collinsworth called Manningham’s 38 yard reception “one of the greatest catches in Super Bowl history.” Yeah, it would have been better if Manningham had announced that he were from Michigan rather than his home town, but it seems hard to fault him too much for that.

Tom Brady: It seemed that most Michigan fans were rooting for a Patriots’ victory. If New England had won, Brady would have forever been in the conversation as the greatest quarterback of all time. It’s fair to say that Brady remains in that conversation, but his performance on Sunday didn’t exactly make a compelling case for naming him the greatest quarterback ever. Brady went 27-for-41 in the game for 276 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. Although he certainly didn’t get much help from his receiving corps, Brady never looked dominate and only put 17 points on the scoreboard.

David Baas: The starting center for the Giants, Baas’s offensive line blocked for 114 rushing yards and allowed three sacks.

Zoltan Mesko: Zoltan dropped three space emperor punting bombs for an average of 41.0 yards and a net average of 37.7.

Carson Butler: Signed to New England’s practice squad on January 26th, Butler did not participate in Super Bowl XLVI; however, he’s a New England Patriot and the Patriots played in the Super Bowl, so we’re going to count him.

Honorable Mention: Jim Harbaugh may have narrowly missed out on a trip to Super Bowl XLVI, but he was still named the AP Coach of the Year, the first time a 49ers coach has won the award since Bill Walsh.