Bowl After Bowl of Sports Chowdah- Pats Become 49ers East After Huge Rally; Bruins Give Devils Their Due to Start 2012; Sox Close Deal on Bailey

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NFL- After coming from behind against Miami on Christmas Eve, the Patriots wrapped up the regular season in Foxboro against Buffalo on Sunday.

Seemingly determined to make those who picked the Bills over New England look foolish- at least for the first quarter, Buffalo jumped out to a quick 21-0 lead. However, the following three quarters were all New England as the Patrots scored 49 (yes...49- that's not a typo!) unanswered points.

Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis had two rushing TD's while Rob Gronkowski had caught two TD passes. Brady also completed a 39 yard TD pass and run to TE Aaron Hernandez. Gostkowski had two FG's and Danny Woodjead successfully completed a 2-point conversion during the Patriots rally before it was capped off with an exclamation point when Safety Sterling Moore intercepted a Ryan Fitzpatrick Pass late in the 4th and ran it back for a TD to make it 49-21 New England.

Brady went 23 of 35 on the afternoon with 338 yards, 3 TDs and a pick while Bills QB Ryan Fitzpatrick went 29-46 with 307 yards and 4 interceptions. Interstingly, Punter Zoltan Mesko had only two punts on the day, with one of them landing inside the 20 yard line.

The win earns the Patriots a bye in the first round of the playoffs.

NFL PLAYOFFS- Other teams getting a first rund bye in the Baltimore Ravens as well as the San Franciso 49ers and Green Bay Packers over in the NFC.

This weekend's schedule has the AFC South champion Houston Texans hosing the Cincinnati bengals on Saturday afternoon at 4:30 ET while the Detroit Lions head down to the Superdome to take on the New Orleans Saints at 8PM ET.

On Sunday, the Atlanta Falcons will travel to North Jersey to take on the New York Giants at 1:00 PM ET while the Steelers at Broncos will wrap up the weekend at 4:30PM ET.

NCAA FOOTBALL- Don't have alot of time to get too in-depth over most of these bowl games, but I was pleased to see that many of them actually lived up to their billing...almost from Day One.

12/20: Beef 'O'Brady's Bowl

Marshall 20, FIU 10

12/21: San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl

TCU 31, Louisiana Tech 24

12/22: MAACO Bowl

Boise State 56, Arizona State 24

12/24: Hawaii Bowl

Southern Miss 24, Nevada 17

12/26: Independence Bowl

Missouri 41, North Carolina 24

12/27: Little Caesar's Pizza Bowl

Purdue 37, Western Michigan 32

12/27: Belk Bowl

North Carolina State 31, Louisville 24

12/28: Military Bowl

Toledo 42, Air Force 41

12/28: Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl

Texas 21, Cal 10

12/29: Champs Sports Bowl

Florida State 18, Notre Dame 14

12/29: Alamo Bowl

Baylor 67, Washington 56

12/30: Armed Forces Bowl

Brigham Young University 24, Tulsa 21

12/30: Music City Bowl

Mississippi State 23, Wake Forest 17

12/30: Insight Bowl

Oklahoma 31, Iowa 14

12/31: Meinke Car Care Bowl

Texas A&M 33, Northwestern 22

12/31: Sun Bowl

Georgia Tech 27, Utah 30 (OT)

12/31: Fight Hunger Bowl

UCLA 14, Illinois 20

12/31: Liberty Bowl

Cincinnati 31, Vanderbilt 24

12/31: Chik-Fil-A Bowl

Virginia 24, Auburn 43

1/2: Ticket City Bowl

Houston 30, Penn State 14

1/2: Gator Bowl

Ohio State 14, Florida 24

1/2: Capital One Bowl

Nebraska 13, South Carolina 30

1/2: Outback Bowl

Michigan State 33, Georgia 30 (3OT)

1/2: Rose Bowl

Wisconsin 38, Oregon 45

1/2: Fiesta Bowl

Stanford 38, Oklahoma State 41 (OT)

1/3: Sugar Bowl

Michigan 23, Virginia Tech 20 (OT)

1/4: Orange Bowl

West Virginia 70, Clemson 33

There's actually no bowl games tonight, but Friday night's game will be the Cotton Bowl, which will pit #7 Arkansas against #11 Kansas State at 8:00 PM ET airing on FOX.

A couple of side notes- West Virginia's 70-33 pounding of Clemson set a bowl scoring record while Mountaineer QB Geno Smith's six TD passes were also a NCAA Bowl record, suprassing Baylor's 67 points against the Washington Huskies last week in the Alamo Bowl.


NHL: After ending the calendar year of 2011 with a whimper in a 4-2 road loss to the Dallas Stars on New Year's Eve, the Bruins had a few days off before their next game against the New Jersey Devils, where they came back with a vengance.

A little like Sunday's Buffalo/New England game, the Devils got on the board first with a David Clarkson power play tally, but the Bruins came roaring back with a total of six unanswered goals from Campbell, Horton, Krejci, Thornton and a pair from Patrice Bergeron [I gotta admit, one of Bergeron's tallies was so beautifully done, I felt compelled to diagram it for a co-worker who missed it- NANESB!]. Tim Thomas stopped 30 of 31 shots faced while Martin Brodeur turned aside 21 of 26 shots faced.

On Thursday night, the Bruins returned home for the first time since 2011 to take on the Calgary Flames. The Flames were coming into the Garden without forward Rene Bourque, who was given a 5-game suspension by the NHL after delivering an elbow to the head of Washington's Nicklas Backstrom during Calgary's 3-1 loss to the Capitals on Tuesday.

Thursday night's game turned out to be even more lopsided than Wednesday's. The Bruins jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first period and kept adding to it from there. The Bruins would go on to thump Calgary by a 9-0 final, with Nathan Horton and Patrice Bergeron getting a pair of goals along with tallies from Chris Kelly, David Krejci, Tyler Seguin, Danny Paille and Nathan Horton.

Tukka Rask got the start in net and stopped all 25 shots faced while Leland Irving and Miikka Kiprusoff each faced 21 shots, with Irving giving up 6 goals before being pulled for Kiprusoff. Despite the offensive output, the Bruins had only two power play opportunities, with David Krejci getting the lone power play goal.

The convincing win against Calgary is the last game before this weekend's Stanley Cup finals rematch where the Bruins will host the Vancouver Canucks. The game gets underway at 1PM ET and will be broadcast on the NHL Network.


ELSEWHERE IN THE NHL- The New York Rangers came back from a 2-0 defecit to beat the Philadelphia Flyers by a 3-2 final at Citizens Bank Ballpark in Philadelphia on Monday. Early in the 3rd, the Rangers Brad Richardson notched to go-ahead goal while goalie Henrik Lunqvist stopped a penalty shot from Danny Briere later on in the 3rd, preserving the Rangers 3-2 win.

OTHER NHL NEWS- Police in Philadelphia and New Jersey are investigating an assault of two Rangers fans at Philadelphia's landmark Gino's Steaks that was videotaped shortly after the game on Monday.

New York Rangers fan Neal Auricchio Jr, 30, received the brutal beating from three Philadelphia Flyers fans after the game on Monday night.

The former Marine, who has worked as a policeman in Woodbridge, New Jersey, for four years, went to hospital with concussion after the attack.

Police claim Flyers fans, in orange, paid a man cleaning vehicle windows to spray a Rangers fan with a liquid, reported NBC New York.

The first hit was made by a man with a #28 Claude Giroux Flyers shirt on a man with a #24 Ryan Callahan Rangers shirt, whose identity is unknown.

Then the Rangers fan tried to fight back but was quickly pushed to the ground and two other Flyers fans joined in the attack, the video shows.
Mr Auricchio got a Purple Heart medal for his service in Iraq and even returned there for a second time after he was shot in the leg, reported NBC New York.
Police are still looking for the men in the fight and posted the video on YouTube to help catch them.

One of the alleged assailants reportedly took to Facebook to take credit for the beating but quickly backtracked.

MLB- The Red Sox acquired closer Andrew Bailey and outfielder Ryan Sweeney from the Oakland A's in exchange for outfielder Josh Reddick and prospects Raul Alcantara and Miles Head.

Bailey went 0-4 with 24 saves, a 3.24 ERA and 41 strikeouts for the A's in 42 appearences in 2011. In 2009, Bailey won Rookie of the Year honors in the AL. Interetingly, Bailey has three saves in four appearences at Fenway.

The acquisiton settles speculation over whether or not the Red Sox would attempt to fill in the closer vacancy left with Papelbon's departure via free agency or within the Red Sox system.

NCAA HOCKEY- Fenway Park is getting set up as an outdoor hockey venue that will host an NCAA doubleheader on Saturday. Game one will have the UMass Minutemen take on the Vermont Catamounts while game two will feature the New Hampshire Wildcats against the Maine Black Bears at 7:30 PM.