NCAA FOOTBALL: Holy crap, where to start?Boston College finished up its regular season with a road trip to the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, NY to renew their rivalry with the Syracuse Orangemen. This would be the first meeting between the Orangemen and Eagles football since Boston College left the Big East in 2004. And BC would have to get it done without RB Montel Harris, who underwent surgery on his left knee after last week's game against Virginia.
Stepping in to fill the void was freshman tailback Andre Williams, who's increased playing time saw him net 185 yards on 42 carries and BC's only TD on the day. The Eagles carried a 6-0 shutout into halftime thanks to two Nate Freese FG's from inside the 30 yard line before Syracuse briefly took a 7-6 lead in the 3rd quarter.
BC would go on to take the lead for good on the following possession which started from their own 22 and culminated with Williams TD run from inside the Syracuse red zone after shaving 4 and a half minutes off the game clock. Freese would add a FG to round out the Eagles scoring and LB Matt Herzlich intercepted Ryan Nassib's pass on the following Syracuse possession with 1:28 remaining to ice BC's 16-7 win over the Orangemen.
Both Boston College and Syracuse finish the 2010 regular season with identical 7-5 records, with the Eagles winning their last five straight- including four against ACC opponents. Saturday was a fairly quiet day for Eagles QB Chase Rettig, going 11-19 with 110 yards and rushing for 13 more.
It was looking pretty bad with all of BC's losses coming in 5 consecutive weeks, but the Eagles were able to persevere and finish strong, and hopefully this will be rewarded with an invitation to their 11th straight bowl game.
ELSEWHERE IN THE ACC: The University of Miami fired head football coach Randy Shannon after the Hurricane's 23-20 OT loss to the University of South Florida. The Hurricanes had lost two straight and like BC and Syracuse, finished with a record of 7-5.
*The ACC Championship game will kick off at 7:45 PM Saturday night at Charlotte, NC. #21 Ranked Florida State will take on #15 Virginia Tech for the conference title and a BCS berth.
BIG EAST: My my....the plot thickens in the Nutmeg state.
With a 7-4 record after easily handling defending Big East Champions Cincinnati on Saturday night, the UConn Huskies may be heading to a BCS bowl with at least a share of the Big East title.
Although it got as close as 24-17 at one point in the 4th, the Huskies led the whole night in their 38-17 win over the Bearcats. RB Jordan Todman had 31 carries for 175 yards and 3TDs while Huskies QB Zach Frazier went 11-24 with 121 yards, a touchdown and an INT and DT Kendall Reyes ran back a Zach Collaros interception 70+ yards (it was initially run back all the way, but a blocking penalty nullified the TD and gave UConn the ball on the Bearcats 15).
Now here's where it gets a little strange- although #23 West Virginia thrashed the Pitt Panthers by a 35-10 final and have a better record than UConn at the moment, UConn holds the tiebreaker over both Pitt and #23 West Virginia. Whether or not UConn can get at least a share of the Big East's BCS berth will come down to whether or not they can win their remaining regular season game, a road game against the 7-4 South Florida Bulls (keep in mind USF just came off a win against Miami (FL) in OT on Saturday).
Kickoff will be at 8PM ET at Tampa on Saturday night.
OTHER BIG EAST NEWS: The Texas Christian board of directors announced that they have accepted an invitation that will send the Horned Frogs to the Big East conference effective July 1, 2012. TCU had been with the Mountain West conference since the 2005 season.
ELSEWHERE IN NCAAF: Huge upset in Reno, NV where the #19 Ranked Nevada Wolfpack bested the #3 ranked Boise State Broncos in overtime on Friday night, handing the Broncos their first loss since the 2008 Poinsettia Bowl. After taking a 24-7 lead into halftime, it appeared as though the Broncos were just toying with Nevada, seemingly able to put the game out of reach at any given moment.
While Nevada was able to come back and tie up the game at 24-24 in the 4th quarter, the Broncos pulled ahead on a Kellen Moore pass to Doug Martin for 79 yards that put Boise State up 31-24 with just over 5 minutes to go.
Nevada would respond with a 4 and a half minute drive from their own 21 and managed to tie the game at 31-31 with 17 seconds left in regulation. Incredibly, with only 9 seconds left in regulation and starting out on their own 38, Broncos QB Kellen Moore made a 53 yard completion to WR Titus Young setting up a go-ahead 26 yard Field Goal attempt by Kyle Brotzman with 2 seconds left in the 4th.
Inexplicably, Brotzman's kick missed, sending the game to OT, where one would assume he'd have the chance to redeem himself. However, with Boise getting the 1st possession of OT, he would end up missing from the 29 yard line as well while Nevada's Anthony Martinez would boot the game winning FG on the Wolfpack's only possession in OT.
The 34-31 OT win puts the Wolfpack at #17 in the BCS standings and drops Boise state to #11.
NFL: For the first time since 2002, the New England Patriots wound up playing on Thanksgiving Day against the Detroit Lions at Ford Field. The Patriots actually headed into halftime in this one trailing 17-10 and would actually go on to trail 24-17 in the 3rd before Brady connected with Deion Branch for 79 yards and a TD to tie everything up at 24-24.
The 4th quarter was all New England, though, with Brady connecting with Wes Welker and Branch (again) for a pair of TDs and Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis rushing for one inside the Lions 5 to put the game away and give the Pats a 45-24 win.
Branch had 3 receptions for 119 yards and two TDs while Welker had 8 catches for 90 yards and two TDs of his own. As far as the running game was concerned, the law offices of Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis had 12 carries for 59 yards and 2 TDs and Brady went 21-27 for 341 yards and 4 TD passes.
On the defensive side of the ball, CB Devin McCourty had two INTs and the kicking game was perfect with Shayne Graham making his only field goal attempt to the day,
This is starting to feel a little like a bye week, with the Pats having played 3 days before most of the other teams and having until Monday, December 6 for their next game. The Pats will host the Jets at Foxboro for their final Monday Night football appearance of the 2010 season. Interestingly, the Jets also played on Thanksgiving, easily dispatching the Cincinnati Bengals by a 26-10 margin for the late game on Thanksgiving.
NBA: The Celtics managed to bounce back from a narrow loss to the Toronto Raptors on Friday night, this time manging to down the Raptors 110-101 on a busy night from 'old timers' Kevin Garnett (26 points, 11 rebounds) and Shaquille O'Neal (16 points) for their third win in a row.
Their next game will be against the Cavs at Cleveland on Tuesday night.
OTHER CELITCS NEWS: D'OH!
You may not be the only one thrown off by the C's light schedule over the weekend. None other than Shaquille O'Neal missed a scheduled practice on Monday after forgetting the start time. Glen Davis took his spot among the starting players though.
NHL: The Bruins have managed to lose two in a row and three out of four to Southeast Division opponents. After getting shut out at home 3-0 to the Carolina Hurricanes, the Bruins travelled to Atlanta Sunday where they were downed 4-1 by the home team. Tukka Rask stopped 22 of 26 shots faced and Blake Wheeler had the only goal for Boston (with assists from Ryder and Lucic) midway through the 2nd period.
For their next game, the Bruins will be travelling to Philly to take on the 15-6-4 Flyers on Wednesday night.
MLB: Victor Martinez and the Detroit Tigers have reached a 4 year $50 million deal- pending a physical- while the Red Sox declined salary arbitration with Jason Varitek. The Red Sox are likely interested in retaining Tek's services, hoping he could mentor Jarrod Saltalamacchia who was picked up from the Texas Rangers at the trade deadline in 2010. By not offering salary arbitration to the veteran catcher, the Sox are likely attempting to retain his services under reworked contract.
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