NFL: These guys must be on suicide watch after Sunday.Coming into Sunday's game at Soldier Field, the Pats were favored by 3 points. Seems a little understated in hindsight.
In the driving snow, Tom Brady went 27-40 with 369 yards and two TDs- including connecting with Deion Branch for 59 yards to find the Bears end zone as time expired in the first half.
And that was just an exclamation point on a half in which the Bears were outscored 33-0. Brady connected with TE Ron Gronkowski for a 7 yard TD Pass on their second drive to open up the scoring, capping off a 6+ minute drive that started on their own 15 yard line. In the 2nd quarter, Danny Woodhead put the Pats up 14-0 on a 3 yard TD run and on the Bear's next possession, a lateral from Jay Cutler to WR Johnny Knox was fumbled and Pats LB Gary Guyton returned it for a TD. Shayne Graham added to the scoring with two chip-shot FGs in the 2nd period as well (although he missed the PAT after Branch's TD as time expired in the first half).
The Bears only socred once- a one yard TD run from Chester Taylor in the 3rd- while the Pats 2nd half scoring was limited to a 29 yard Graham FG.
New England wins this one by a final of 36-7, with the Patriots outscoring their last two opponents by a 81-10 margin and scoring more than 30 points for the 6th straight week. The win clinches a playoff berth for New England as well.
Next Sunday's game will be a nocturnal affair as the Pats host the Green Bay Packers on Sunday Night Football.
ELSEWHERE IN THE AFC EAST: Apparently the Patriots broke the Jets. This time, the Miami Dolphins were able to successfully keep the Jets out of the end zone in their 10-6 win over New York on Sunday afternoon (this would mean the Jets lost their last 2 games by a combined total of 55-9).
Even so, that wasn't the most noteworthy event to take place on Sunday in the Meadowlands. Jet's strength and conditioning coach Sal Alosi tripped Miami CB Nolan Carroll from the sidelines as the Dolphins rookie as he was running along the sideline to cover a punt. Alosi issued an apology a few hours after the game but will likely face some sort of fine or disciplinary action.
ELSEWHERE IN THE NFL: There was already talk of moving Sunday afternoon's Vikings/Giants game to Monday night in the wake of a massive blizzard that struck the upper Midwest this weekend.
With the collapse of the Metrodome roof, the NFL announced the game is being moved to Detroit for Monday night. The delay might've given the Viking's Brett Favre enough time to add to his NFL-record 297 consecutive regular season starts streak although the QB appeared doubtful.
The Lions will start giving away free general admission tickets on Monday morning at 9AM Central Time while repair work begins on the roof of the Metrodome. The inflatable roof is expected to be open in time for next week's Monday Night Football game between the Bears and Vikings.
NCAA FOOTBALL: The Army and Naval Academy football teams clashed in Philly on Saturday, with the Midshipmen coming out on top 31-17. This the 9th season in a row that Navy has topped Army. Navy leads the series all time at 55-49-7.
With that said, both teams will be playing one more game this year. The Midshipmen will be taking on the San Diego State Aztecs in the SD County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl on Dec. 23rd while Army goes up against the Southern Methodist Mustangs in the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl on December 30th.
FCS: Not only was I wrong about the number of remaining teams in the FCS playoff, but there are now no more New England teams competing with the UNH Wildcat's 16-3 loss to Delaware.
I completely overlooked two separate FCS playoff games this weekend- Eastern Washington's 38-31OT win against North Dakota State and Georgia Southern holding off Wofford by a final of 23-20.
That said, the Colonial Athletic Association is still going to be well represented in the semifinals, as Villanova handled Appalachian State 42-24 to take on Eastern Washington while Delaware's win over New Hampshire earns them a date with Georgia Southern. The winners of each game will play each other for the FCS Championship on Jan 7th at Frisco, TX.
HEISMAN: Perhaps not surprisingly, Auburn's Cam newton won the Heisman Trophy in a landslide on Saturday. It barely took 5 years for USC's Reggie Bush to be stripped of his Heisman.
SEC: Former Texas Longhorns defensive coordinator Will Muschamp was named as the new Gators head coach according to a UF statement released Saturday night.
NHL: So close to a shootout, but it just wasn't gonna happen on Saturday night.
Philly jumped out to the 1-0 lead against Boston at the Garden early in the second period of Saturday night's game. Nathan Horton managed to tie the game with his goal about 10 minutes into the third. From then on, neither Tim Thomas or Philly's Brian Boucher let anything by them for the rest of regulation and overtime. Well....most of overtime.
The Flyer's Mike Richards managed to tally an unassisted goal against Thomas with all of 3 seconds remaining in sudden death OT, thus ending the game before the shootout was necessary. Although the way Boucher was turning away the puck on Saturday night, one had to wonder if a shootout would have more work to get to the same net result.
Boucher stopped 35 of 36 shots faced, while in the Bruins net Thomas stops 31 of 33 shots faced. The Bruins have to settle for the one point and Horton gets the only Boston goal of the night.
The Bruins next game won't be until Wednesday at HSBC Arena in Buffalo, NY. The Sabres are coming off of a 5-2 loss to the Penguins on Saturday night.
OTHER BRUINS NEWS: The Bruins sent Marco Sturm to the LA Kings before Saturday's game against Philly. Technically the Bruins would be getting 'future considerations' from LA, but GM Peter Chiarelli admitted in a statement that the future considerations 'meant nothing'. The Bruins GM admitted the trade was done to make more room under the current salary cap. Currently the Kings have close to a $6 million salary cap and could absorb the cost of Sturm's contract for the rest of the season.
NBA In what could be considered the least shocking outcome of the NBA this weekend, the Celtics continued their win streak at 10 with a 93-62 rout of the Charlotte Bobcats on Saturday.
Nothing like the Thursday Night cliffhanger against the 76ers, but it's not like these games are being decided by style points.
The C's will next take on the NY Knicks in a game that's scheduled to be televised on ESPN at 7PM ET on Wednesday night.
MLB: Perhaps lost in the news surrounding the signings of Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez is the fact that the Red Sox have signed catcher and team captian Jason Varitek to a one year extension worth an estimated $2 million plus another $300,000 in incentives should he start 80 or more games as catcher.
NCAA HOCKEY A new NCAA Hockey attendance record was set this weekend when 113,411 fans came to Michigan's Big House to see the outdoor contest between the Michigan Wolverines and Michigan State Spartans.
The Wolverines won by a final of 5-0.
[H/T Eat it or Wear It on Metrodome footage]
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