NFL Wekk 8 Capsule

Crazy week of Week 8 action with one game to go tonight with the Saints and Falcons. But here are some great things from the week that was week 8.

*Brett Favre returns to booes at Lambeau and rolls with 4 TD's.
*Rams and Titans pick up their first wins of the season.
*Panthers beat a decent team on the road in the Cards and commit zero turnovers in the process.
*Denver no longer undefeated after being crushed by Baltimore.
*Houston goes to 5-3 after win over Buffalo for best start in franchise history through 8 games.
*Philadelphia steamrolls the G-men, putting up 30 first-half points....better than the Phils did in the WS Game 4.
*Cowboys could be a contender in the NFC East after dismantling the Seahawks.

On tap tonight: The Atlanta Falcons visit New Orleans for a NFC South Monday Night Showdown. The Saints sit undefeated at 6-0, while the Falcons are 4-2.

Theodore's 41 stops propels Caps over Philly

WASHINGTON -- So just when you thought Varly's job was safe, Jose Theodore comes out and posts 41 saves against the Philadelphia Flyers, as the Capitals rally to win 4-2 at Verizon Center Tuesday night.

Down 2-0 late in the second, Ovechkin struck with 3:52 remaining to cut the Flyers lead to 2-1. Sixty-four seconds later, Nicklas Backstrom's wrister on a power play knotted the game at 2-apiece.

Entering the fourth, Alex Semin wasted little time scoring on a snap shot 5:24 into the final frame to give Washington its first lead of the contest.

Ovi scored the insurance empty netter on a backhander to give the Caps a two-goal advantage with under one minute in regulation.

Philadelphia kept the pressure on Theo, though. They had 20 shots on goal, and Jose stopped every last one to give the Capitals their fifth-consecutive win to improve to 7-2-2 on the season.

Washington will return to the ice Thursday night in Atlanta for a repeat of last week's match up with the Thrashers.

The puck drops at 7 p.m. and the game can be seen on Comcast Sportsnet Mid-Atlantic.

Panthers rally, win first game

CHARLOTTE - The Carolina Panthers (1-3) had been playing pretty miserably, to say the least. That was true until the final 25 minutes of Sunday's game was played at Bank of America Stadium.

And finally, QB Jake Delhomme let out a scream with his shoulder pads out, after a month-long struggle following his game-clinching nine-yard rush.

Down 17-2 at home, and still winless with an 0-3 mark in the 2009 season, Delhomme awoke from his throwing coma, and led the Black and Blue to a come-from-behind 20-17 win against the Washington Redskins.

Delhomme found Jeff King for a 17-yard touchdown in the left corner of the endzone with 8:38 remaining in the third to cut the lead to 17-9.

After a John Kasay fourth quarter field goal, the Panthers still trailed by five.

Then, the drama happened in Uptown Charlotte, when the Josh Baker punt bounced off Bryant Westbrook's foot. The ball was recovered by Dante Wesley and after an official review, the zebras gave Carolina the ball on the Washington 12-yard line with just over 10 minutes remaining.

Two plays later, Jonathan Stewart scampered into the endzone giving the Panthers an 18-17 lead. A Steve Smith two-point conversion gave Carolina the lead that they would hold on to for their first mark in the win column.

Delhomme finished the ball game with 181 passing yards and a touchdown.

The Carolina defense was great too.

Julius Peppers tallied two of the team's four sacks on the afternoon and Jason Campbell was never able to establish anything offensively, other than their two short touchdowns after costly Panthers turnovers.

The Panthers held Washington (2-3) to 124 passing yards and 198 total offense.

Washington's Clinton Portis scored a rushing and receiving touchdown for the Skins, for his first two scores since week 17 of last year.

Carolina returns next Sunday when they head to Raymond James Stadium for a divisional match-up with the winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers (0-5) at 1 p.m.

SOM Faculty upends their students

FAIRFAX, Va. - The George Mason University School of Music can play sports too.

To prove it, they scheduled a softball game featuring the faculty and staff against their students whom they teach Monday through Friday.

Jokes were cracked early by Mark Camphouse, interim director of the School of Music, saying students would receive F's if the faculty did not win.

Needless to say, no fails will be given to the students who battled their professors on the sunny afternoon on Intramural Field 1.

The Faculty/Staff team scored 14-straight runs in the final three innings to take down the future leaders of the world 26-20 in the nine inning classic.

Leading 15-12 entering the seventh, the students surrendered six runs to the Faculty/Staff and they were unable to recover from the deficit.

The bats of the Faculty/Staff were too much for the band of students, but at game's end, everybody said "Good game," took team photos, and everybody was happy with how well this great event was.

The Faculty/Staff lead the all-time series 1-0, with hopefully many more games to come in the future!

Caps cruise in home opener

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WASHINGTON - It did not take long. Try only 1:17 into the first for the sea of red to explode. Alex Ovechkin found the net, sounded the horn, and the Maple Leafs never had a prayer in this contest.

Oh, and M-V-P chants were screamed by the capacity crowd. Imagine being called MVP after 77 seconds.

That is how great Ovi is.

Washington used three goals in each of the first two periods to cruise to a 6-4 win at Verizon Center Saturday night.

The Caps did what the Caps did best in Northwest D.C. - score early and often. Last season, Washington started the season 18-1-1 at Verizon Center, by scoring early, thus getting a lead they would not relinquish.

Last night was no different.

After Ovechkin scored his third goal of the season, newcomer Mike Knuble recorded his first goal in his #22 Capitals jersey with 10:48 remaining in the first period.

To make matters worse for Toronto, who lost in their home opener two night prior in overtime to Montreal, Brooks Laich had a breakaway, and tallied his third goal of the season.

In the second, a new goalie, but the same result as the first - three more goals for Washington.

Toronto managed a goal to cut the lead to 3-1, but Washington answered quickly, with Alex Semin scoring his first of two goals just a couple minutes later.

Another newcomer, Brendan Morrison, scored his first goal as a Capital 10:42 into the second.

Semyon Varlamov made his first home-opening start in D.C., and through two periods, he stopped 24 of 25 shots.

Up 6-1 entering the final 20 minutes, the defense relaxed, a little two much, and the Leafs scored three times. Though the Caps failed to score in the final period, the game was over before it really began.

Varly made three saves on six shots in the final frame, but his 27 saves were a plenty to pick up the victory.

The crowd was electric and the game was incredible to witness in person. Offensively, Washington looks unstoppable, but the defense cannot play two periods and expect to cruise to wins all season long.

The game is 60 minutes, and the D needs to stay on point for every second.

The Capitals hit the road Tuesday for Philadelphia, in what will be Knuble's first game back at the Wachovia Center and against his old team, the Flyers.

The puck drops at 7 p.m. and can be seen nationally on Versus.