So many Michigan standouts in NFL Week 14

Wow, it's been a while since I was able to post (life happens, you know?), but so much has gone on recently in high school, college and pro football regarding Michigan athletes. I'll slowly try and catch up with today's blog about the random NFL games (Week 14) I watched and the performances turned in by former Michigan high school football standouts.

In his first start of the 2013 season, quarterback Kirk Cousins (Holland Christian, Michigan State) was 29-of-45 passing for 381 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions in the Washington Redskins' 27-26 last second loss to the Atlanta Falcons.

Wide receiver Greg Jennings (Kalamazoo Central, Western Michigan) caught a career-high 11 passes for 163 yards and one touchdown leading the Minnesota Vikings to a 48-30 win over the Philadelphia Eagles.

Running back Edwin "Rock" Baker (Oak Park, Michigan State) seeing his first action of the season, rushed for a team-high 38 yards on eight carrier (4.8 ave.) and one touchdown in the Cleveland Browns' 38-31 loss to the Chicago Bears.

In two games that drew my interest, the St. Louis Rams defeated the New Orleans Saints 27-16. Starting and seeing plenty of action for the Rams were offensive tackles Joe Barksdale (Detroit Cass Tech, LSU) and Jake Long (Lapeer East, U-M), while playing for the Saints were running back Mark Ingram (Flint Southwestern, Alabama) and offensive guard Tim Lelito (St. Clair, Grand Valley State University).

In the Jacksonville Jaguars' 27-20 loss to the Buffalo Bills, the Jags had three former Michigan high school football standouts in significant roles with defensive end Jason Babin (Paw Paw, Western Michigan), cornerback Alan Ball (Detroit DePorres, Illinois) and offensive tackle Cameron Bradfield (Grand Rapids Creston, Grand Valley State University) suiting up.

In the Green Bay Packers' wild 37-36 comeback victory over the Dallas Cowboys, offensive guard T.J. Lang (Birmingham Brother Rice, Eastern Michigan), linebacker Brad Jones (East Lansing, Colorado) and defensive end Nick Perry (Detroit King, USC) all started for the Packers, while starting for the Cowboys was safety Jeff Heath (Lake Orion, Saginaw Valley State) and cornerback Brandon Carr (Flint Carman-Ainsworth, Grand Valley State University).

In the Sunday Night Football Game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Pittsburgh Steelers, starting for the Bengals was center Kyle Cook (Macomb Dakota, Michigan State), while starting for the Steelers was linebacker LaMarr Woodley (Saginaw, U-M). On the roster, also, for Pittsburgh are linebacker Larry Foote (Detroit Pershing, U-M) and offensive tackle Joe Long (Lapeer East, Wayne State University). Joe Long is the younger brother of Rams' starting offensive tackle and former No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft Jake Long.

Coming soon will be my end-of-season high school football All-State team, my 44-member Michigan squad that I would take to the field against Ohio later this spring/summer, my state championship recap, my position-by-position rankings for the classes of 2014 and 2015 and my top 50 players in the class of 2016, plus the recruiting class I would sign (or at least aggressively go after) if I was Eastern Michigan's new head coach Chris Creighton. Creighton doesn't have much time and these players on my list are all D-I guys who are somewhat under-the-radar and who would more than likely jump at the chance to play Division I college football. Stay tuned...