NFL: Brett Favre took it on the chin- literally- in Sunday's game at Foxboro. While engineering a drive inside New England's 10 yard line midway through the 4th quarter, the Vikings QB was levelled by DT Myron Pryor and had to leave the game with a laceration on his chin.Coming into this week's matchup, there was some doubt whether or not we would even get the Tom Brady/Brett Favre matchup, with the possibility that Brett Favre would miss his 292nd consecutive career start due to multiple fractures in his ankle. Prior to that the sub-plot for Sunday's game was supposed to be Randy Moss' return to Foxboro for the first time since he was traded earlier in the year, but Moss was a conspicuous non-factor with only one reception for 8 yards on the day.
After a scoreless first quarter, Minnesota took the lead to start off the 2nd quarter with a drive that started out on their own 24 and was capped with a one yard TD run from RB Adrian Peterson. The Pats responded by putting together a drive from their own 25 that went into the Viking's red zone thanks to long completions from Brady to Deion Branch and Brandon Tate, culminating when RB Danny Woodhead took a direct snap from the Vikings 3 into the end zone.
Although Minnesota moved the ball around effectively with Favre at QB, twice they made it inside the Pat's red zone and were shut out, the most pivotal stop coming on a 4th and goal with a minute left in the 1st half, when Adrian Peterson was stuffed at the 1-yard line to keep the game tied at 7-7- heading into the half.
The Pat's D also factored into keeping Minnesota Vikings out of the end zone on their first posession on the second half, with the Vikings getting as far as New England's own 5 before settling for a chip shot field goal from the 24 yard line.
New England came right back with a drive that quickly put them up thanks to a completion from Brady to Brandon Tate good for 65 yards to make it a 14-10 contest.
With five minutes to go in the 3rd quarter and Minnesota getting the ball mid-field, Brett Favre was intercepted by Devon McCourty, who ran it back to the Vikings 37 yard line. The ensuing Pats posession was almost literally all Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis. Aside from a 10 yard completion to Danny Woodhead, the ball was handed off to the RB for 3 carries for 27 yards, including his 13 yard TD run to put New England up 21-10.
Starting at their own 20, Favre put together a drive (including a 30 yard pickup by WR Percy Harvin) that got them inside the New England 10 before Pryor's hit knocked him out, with Tavaris Jackson coming in at QB. The next play was a quick pass to Nafahu Tahi for the touchdown, followed by a 2 point conversion to Harvin to close the gap at 18-21.
New England began their following posession at their own 20 yard line and strung together a lengthy, time-consuming drive that included converting in a 3rd & 12 thanks to a 16 yard pickup by Danny Woodhead and yet another Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis TD run to put the Pats up by 28-18 marign inside the 2-minute warning.
That would be the final from Foxboro as the Pats went to 6-1. With the Jets 9-0 loss to Green Bay at the Meadowlands earlier in the day, New England takes sole posession of first place in the AFC east. The cherry on top of that is with Pittsburgh's 20-10 loss to New Orlenas on Sunday night, the Patriots have the best overall record in the NFL.
Next week will have the Pats travel to Cleveland for a 1PM ET/10AM Pt kickoff against the Browns (who lest we forget, absolutely manhandled New Orleans a few weeks back). Then comes a particularly difficult stretch where New England will be going up against the Steelers and Colts.
UPDATE: Well, that didn't last long. On Monday, the Vikings announced that WR Randy Moss would be waived after an odd, one-man postgame press conference after the game.
WORLD SERIES: The series has moved to Arlington, TX and on Saturday night, the Rangers avoided the sweep thanks to Mitch Moreland, who drove in 3 of Texas' 4 runs with a 3-run shot in the bottom of the second inning. Colby Lewis lasted a good 7 and ⅔ innings in a must-win scenario, giving up two earned runs on 5 hits while striking out six. It got a little tense for awhile, but Darren O'Day and Neftali Feliz managed to close out the game for the Ranger's 4-2 win, the first-ever World Series game won in the state of Texas.
For Sunday night, both the Giants and the Rangers had their young starters going- Tommy Hunter versus Madison Bumgardner. Hunter gave up a 2-run shot to Giants DH Aubrey Huff in the top of the third to make it a 2-0 game. Outfielder Andres Torres would drive in another run in the top of the 7th off of Darren Oliver and catcher Buster Posey had a solo shot off of Darren O'Day to make it a 4-0 San Francisco advantage. Bumgardner went 8 scoreless innings, giving up 3 hits, 2 walks and striking out six while Londonderry, NH's own Brian Wilson had a 1-2-3 bottom of the 9th to close out 4-0 win, putting San Francisco up 3 games to 1 in the World Series.
Game 5 is set to take place tonight at Arlington, with the game 1 rematch of Cliff Lee and Tim Linecum at 7:57PM ET, 4:57ET.
NHL: The Bruins took their first trip north of the border this season to take on the Ottawa Senators Saturday night. As it turned out, David Krejci would get the only tally (unassisted, no less!) Boston needed with 4 ½ minutes left in the first. Still, Tyler Seguin and Milan Lucic gave Boston some insurance in the 2nd period with seperate goals and Jordan Caron put Boston up 4-0.
[OK- who was ready to write off Tim Thomas last season? Don't you feel kind of dumb now?- NANESB!]
Tim Thomas stopped all 29 shots faced and now has a 6-0-0 record, in net for all six of Boston's wins. The Bruins 6-2-0 record and will travel next to the HSBC Arena to take on the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night.
NCAA FOOTBALL: How about that? The BC Eagles are off the schnide after downing the Clemson Tigers at Chestnut Hill on Saturday! This snaps the Eagle's longest losing streak since 1998. Saturday's game was by no means a track meet, with Clemson taking the early 7-0 lead. The Eagles replied with a Nate Freese field goal, which the Tigers responded to with one of their own to take a 10-3 lead to close out the first quarter. The Eagles got another field goal in the 2nd and then scored their only TD on a 36 yard play to RB Montel Harris with the Eagles holding on to a 16-10 heading into halftime.
There was no scoring in the 2nd half, with the Eagle's defense stifling the Tigers and getting the ball back thanks to missed field goals, interceptions and tunrovers on downs. After some close losses to Maryland and Florida state, BC beats Clemson by a final of 16-10. Montel Harris had 1 reception for 142 yards and BC's only TD.
Next week, the Eagles will travel to Winston-Salem, NC to take on the struggling Wake Forest Demon Deacons, who currently have a record of 2-6.
BIG EAST: Just like on Chestnut Hill, 16 points was all it took for UConn to break their losing streak against a favored opponent on a Friday Night game against the West Virginia Mountaineers.
The overtime win heading into the weekend was aided in large part by no less than 7 Mountaineer turnovers- four of them recovered by UConn. The most damning one for West Virginia came in the OT, which by rule gave the Huskies posession on WV's own 25 yard line. After being kept out of the end zone by the Mountaineer defense, UConn kicker Dave Teggart booted the game winning FG from the West Virginia 27 yard line for the 16-13 win.
The win halts the Huskies 2-game losing streak and gives UConna 4-4 record for their upcoming Veteran's Day game against Pitt at E. Hartford, CT.
NBA: Despite his non-compliant headband, Rajon Rondo had a career night against the NY Knicks with a triple double and 24 assists on Friday night. Paul Pierce wasn't too shabby either, with 25 points and 14 rebounds of his own during the C's 105-101 win against New York.
[Should I be Concerned that this was such a close game against what's normally considered an awful team? Has New York improved that much? Or is this something that can be attributed to early season rustiness on the part of both teams?- NANESB!]
The C's will next travel to the Palace at Auburn Hills, MI to take on the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday night.
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