NFL- Well....at least one of the Championship games was an instant classic.
Surprisingly the NFC title game on the West Coast got underway first, with the Green Bay Packers jumping out to an early 16-0 lead over the Seahawks up in Seattle in the first half thanks to three first half interceptions. However, Seattle's defense stiffened after those turnovers and more than once the Packers had to settle for a FG instead of getting 7 points.
In the seconds half, the Seahawks came roaring back and with just 1:25 to go in regulation they managed to take their first lead of the day on a 24 yard Marshawn Lynch TD run to put Seattle up 22-19 before the Packers managed to tie the contest up with 14 seconds to go on a 48 yard Mason Crosby field goal, forcing overtime.
After winning the coin toss, the Seahawks took the ball and won the game on a 35 yard TD pass from Russell Wilson to Jermaine Kearse, sending the Seahawks to their second consecutive Superbowl.
NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS- The late game on Championship Sunday wasn't quite as close.
For the first time since 2006 and the first time since Manning departed for Denver, the Patriots and the Colts faced off in the postseason. In what would be the start of a trend, LeGarette Blount put New England on the board early after Josh Cribbs fumbled a punt that was recovered by New England inside the Colts 30 yard line.
The Patriots would get out to a quick 14-0 lead before the Colts got on the board with about five minutes to go in the first half from a short TD run from Zurlon Tipton to make it 14-7. However, the Patriots would add to their lead thanks to a Gostkowski FG with 9 seconds left in the half.
The second half was all New England as they would go on to score 28 unanswered points in the second half, including two more TD runs from Legarette Blount. The Patriots go on to win by a 45-7 final and advance to face the Seahawks in the Superbowl.
However, in the weeks leading up to Superbowl 49, the talk amongst the media has been about how the footballs used in the AFC title game were examined by the NFL and found to be underinflated. This created a unusually protracted media firestorm dubbing the scandal 'deflate-gate'- as though slightly underinflated balls were somehow responsible for the Colts defense collapsing like a house of cards whenever LeGarette Blount was carrying the ball.
Anywhoo, I've pretty much been embargoing the media and their vapid fixation on deflated balls in the runup to Superbowl 49. What I do know is that the big game kicks off Sunday night at 6:30 and will be televised on NBC
NHL- From one defending national champion going up against a New England team to another. After stumbling out of the gate, the Boston Bruins are having a pretty good 2015 so far.
Coming off a 5-2 win on the road against the Islanders on Thursday, Saturday night saw the Bruins hosting the defending Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings. It looked as though the Bruins got on the board early in the closing seconds of the first period, but that goal was waved off when officials determined the clock was at 00:00 before the puck was in the net.
Even with the goal waved off, the Bruins managed to get on the board thanks to a Brad Marchand goal in the closing minutes of the second period to give Boston the 1-0 lead. Seven minutes into the third, Jordan Nolan got Los Angeles on the board and tied the game with a goal. However, 90 seconds later Chris Kelly put the Bruins back on top with a goal to make it 2-1 Boston and as the Kings pulled goalie Jonathan Quick late in the 3rd for an extra attacker, Marchand would get an empty-netter, his second of the night to make it 3-1 in favor of Boston.
The Bruins go on to win by the final of 3-1 with Rask stopping 30 of the 31 shots he faced on Saturday night while Quick ended up turning aside 30 of 32.
Boston will get the next couple of days off, with play resuming on Thursday night when they take on the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Puck drops at 8:00 ET and the game will be televised on NBC Sports Network.
NFL- November has proven to be a pretty good month for New England so far, with the Patriots bookending their bye week with convincing wins over division leaders.
The first weekend in November has the Patriots hosting Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos, and the outcome was far less dramatic than the last time Denver came to Foxborough. This time around, the team with the big first half lead managed to hang on to it as New England rolled to a 43-21 win against the Broncos.
Coming out of the bye week, New England faced an equally important test against another AFC division leader as the Patriots travelled to Indianapolis to take on Peyton Manning's former team, the Colts.
Right off the bat, congratulations to those of you who happened to start RB Jonas Gray on your fantasy team on Sunday. RB Jonas Gray out of Notre Dame, who had moved from the practice squad to the starting roster less than a month ago, opened the scoring with a 4 yard TD run in the first to give New England the early 7-0 lead. The Colts quickly came back with a drive of their own that put them in the Patriot's red zone, but they had to settle for a chip shot FG off the leg of Adam Vinatieri to make it 7-3.
Late in the second quarter, Gray found the end zone once again to put the Patriots up on top 14-3 before Andrew Luck led a quick counterattack to put the Colts within 4 points after hitting paydirt on a 10 yard reception by WR Hakeem Nicks with 55 seconds to go in the first half, making it a 14-10 New England lead.
However, during the opening drive of the second half the Patriots started pulling away, thanks to the first Pats TD of the night to someone NOT named Jonas Gray when Brady found TE Tim Wright for a short TD pass to go up 21-10. On the following possession, the Colts would only get as far as the Patriots 35 yards line, but they were able to convert that to points thanks to a successfully 53 yard FG attempt by ex-Patriot Vinatieri. With 3:30 to go in the third, the Patriots made it a 28-13 game thanks once again to Jonas Gray who successfully punched it in from the 2 yard line.
The Colts showed some signs of life late in the 3rd when they made their way down to the Patriots 4 yard line before the game clock flipped over to the 4th quarter. Luck connected with OT Anthony Costanzo to make it a one score game with the Patriots now leading 20-28. However, not only did the Patriots manage to score another TD thanks to an 80 yard drive capped by yet another Gray TD, but they were able to bleed nearly 5 minutes off the clock, putting New England up 35-20 with just under 9 minutes to go in the game. With the clock ticking, Andrew Luck and the Colts offense were pressured to go for it on a 4th and 12 at midfield, but Luck threw the ball incomplete, giving the Patriots an even shorter field to work with and less than 7 minutes to go in the game. The Patriots essentially put the game away on a 26 yard reception and TD from Brady to Gronkowski where he was shedding tacklers like a maple sheds its leaves this time of year- this comes AFTER destroying former teammate and Colts safety Sergio Brown by blocking him into an NBC camera trolley along the sideline.
New England goes on to an pretty easy-looking 42-20 win on Sunday Night Football and will next host the Detroit Lions [who, interestingly, aren't playing on thanksgiving- NANESB!]. Interestingly, this may be the first time ever that the Patriots and Lions have ever played each other when both teams were leading their respective divisions.
OTHER PATRIOTS NEWS- After being released by the Pittsburgh Steelers on Tuesday, free agent RB and former Patriot LeGarrette Blount signed a two year deal with New England on Thursday. Blount was released by the Steelers less than 24 hours after the Steelers 27-24 Monday Night Football win over the Tennessee Titans after complaining about getting no carries in the game.
Although some sportswriters believed the Pats had their eyes toward the future when bringing Blount back [Ridley is currently on the DL and Shane Vereen is a free agent at the end of the season- NANESB!] that became more apparent when Jonas Gray missed practice on Friday. Something similar happened last month when CB Darrelle Revis missed practice last month, but he ultimately ended up playing in the Oct 26th win against the Bears.
ELSEWHERE IN THE AFC EAST- Sunday afternoon's game between the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets has been postponed and is rescheduled to be played at Detroit's Ford Field on Monday night. Over the last few days, the Buffalo area had been hit by a series of winter storms with accumulation up to six feet in many areas.
Initially, the Bills were optimistic that they could get the stadium ready in time for Sunday's game and were offering fans $10 and hour and free game tickets to assist in shoveling out the stadium. However, the snowfall clogged the surrounding highways to the point where some players were arriving at Ralph Wilson stadium via snowmobile and the forecast is calling for even more snowfall between now and Sunday.
Kickoff is scheduled for Monday at 7:00 ET and the game will be televised locally in both the Buffalo and New York City markets on CBS.
NHL- After a pretty disappointing week that saw the Olde Towne Team lose big to Original Six rivals Montreal and Toronto, the Bruins seemed like they found their rhythm once again after returning to the Garden and doubling up the Carolina Hurricanes 2-1 over the weekend.
The win in Tuesday night's home game against the visiting Blues was made all the more strange by the fact that the Blues outshot Boston by nearly a 2:1 margin- 33-17, but Tukka Rask was able to record the shutout while Patrice Bergeron scored in the first and Torey Krug scored in the 3rd [both even-handed- NANESB!] to make it a 2-0 Bruins win.
Boston will travel to Columbus for a 1-game road trip on Friday before retuning home to the Garden on Saturday to host the Canadiens. That game will get underway at 4:00 and will be televised on both NESN, CBC and the NHL Network.
NCAA FOOTBALL- And then there was only one- at least in the "Power Five" conferences.
The Alabama Crimson Tide shook things up in the BCS and put themselves back in the championship hunt after beating the Mississippi State Bulldogs in Tuscaloosa, AL by a 25-20 final on Saturday. Both 'Bama and Mississippi State now sport similar 9-1 records, with Bama holding the edge thanks to their head-to-head record against Mississippi State. The win propels the Crimson Tide to #2 in the Nation while Mississippi State falls to number four.
This weekend, Alabama has a fairly easy contest against FCS Western Carolina at Tuscaloosa before the Iron Bowl against Auburn at the end of the month while the rest of Mississippi State's games are against the SEC with Vanderbilt this weekend and the rivalry game at Ole Miss at the end of the month at Oxford, MS. There is also the matter of the SEC championship game- since Bama and Mississippi State are both in the SEC East division, one of them would go on to face the leader of the SEC west [which could be either Georgia or Missouri if the standings hold up over the next two weeks- NANESB!].
ELSEWHERE IN THE NCAA- Despite trailing most of the game against in-state rival Miami, the Florida State Seminoles pulled out a late win to continue their undefeated season. The 'Noles pulled ahead for good with just over 4 minutes to go in the 4th quarter when Freshman RB Dalvin Cook ran 26 yards for the go-ahead TD. FSU holds in to its top ranking by going on to beat Miami by a 30-26 final.
Florida State will finish off their regular season hosting Boston College, followed by the Florida Gators for Rivalry week and a showdown with #18 Georgia Tech for the ACC Title Game on Dec 6th.
ELSEWHERE IN THE ACC- After getting out to a 13-3 lead over the Louisville Cardinals, the Boston College Eagles gave up five unanswered touchdowns to Louisville and would go on to lose by a 38-19 final in Chestnut Hill two weeks ago. After a week off, the Eagles now face a monumental challenge when they travel to Tallahassee to take on #1 Florida State this weekend. The Eagles regular season wraps up with a Rivalry Week contest against Syracuse at Chestnut Hill on Nov 29th.
WORLD SERIES- Those of us who wanted a Game 7 in the 2014 World Series weren't disappointed.
Game 7 was made possible by the Royals lighting up Giants starter Jake Peavy early in Game Six on Wednesday, cruising to an easy 10-0 win and tying up the series at 3 games apiece.
For Game 7, the Giants got out to an early 2-0 lead off of Kansas City starter Jeremy Guthrie thanks to a pair of RBI sac flies- one off the bat of Michael Morse and Brandon Crawford. However, the Royals got those two runs back in the bottom of the second and managed to chase San Francisco starter Tim Hudson after 1⅔ innings when Alex Gordon hit an RBI double and then advanced to third before coming home on an Omar Enfante sac-fly.
In the top of the 4th, Giants 3B Pablo Sandoval led off with an infield single, followed by a Hunter Pence single and a Brandon Belt fly ball to left field that advanced Sandoval to third. By this point, Royals manager Ned Yost pulled Guthrie and brought Kelvin Herrera in from the bullpen. Morse singled, which brought Sandoval in from 3rd before Herrera struck out Brandon Crawford and got Juan Perez to ground out and end the inning.
Nursing a 1-run lead, Giants manager Bruce Bochy brought in starter Madison Bumgarner from out of the bullpen. Although dominant against the Royals earlier in the series, Bumgarner immediately gave up a single to Omar Enfante followed by an Alcides Escobar sac bunt to move Enfante into scoring position, but that was followed by fly ball off the bat of Nori Aoki to left that LF Juan Perez managed to run down for the second out. Bumgarner then managed to get Lorenzo Cain to strike out and end the bottom of the 5th.
Instead of going to the bullpen, Bochy went with Bumgarner into the 9th inning, with the Giants starter getting better as the innings progressed. In the bottom of the 9th, he got Eric Hosmer and Billy Butler to go down quietly for the first two outs. Alex Gordon stepped into the batter's box and hit a line drive into left center that was misplayed by Gregor Blanco which rolled all the way to the wall. Gordon beat the throw to third and brought the increasingly demoralized crowd at Kauffman Stadium back to life with the tying run 90 feet away. However, Bumgarner got Salavor Perez to pop up to 3rd to clinch San Fransico's third World Series title since 2010.
For his two commanding starts and the Game 7 relief appearance, Madison Bumgarner was named the MVP of the 2014 World Series. On Friday, the City of San Francisco held their third World Series parade in less than five years.
NFL- After struggling just to outlast the Jets on Thursday night last week, the Patriots made it look easy against the Chicago Bears last Sunday when Tom Brady threw for 5 TD passes at Gillette Stadium.
New England had a 31-7 lead in the final minute of the first half when Bears QB Jay Cutler fumbled deep in Bears territory and Rod Ninkovitch recovered and ran it back for a TD with 55 seconds left in the half.
Brady would then connect with Gronkowski for a 46 yard TD reception to make it 45-7 on the Patriot's opening possession of the second half. The Patriots would cruise to an easy 51-23 win over Chicago thanks to 3 TD passes from Brady to Gronk, along with TD passes to Tim Wright and Brandon LaFell. Brady went 30-35 with 354 yards on the day to go with the 5 TDs on the day. Gronk caught 9 passes for 149 yards and the 3 TDs while Gostkowski made all three of his FG attempts.
This Sunday's game is a marquee matchup between two first-ballot Hall of Fame QBs when the Patriots will host the Denver Broncos and QB Peyton Manning at Gillette this weekend. Kickoff is scheduled for 4:25 ET and the game will be televised on ESPN.
ELSEWHERE IN THE NFL- As good a day as Brady had last week, Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger had an even better one, with 6 TDs and 522 yards, going 40-49 in the Steeler's 51-34 win over the Indianapolis Colts. The performance set a Steelers franchise record and was an exclamation point on Big Ben's 100th career win.
NCAA FOOTBALL- The Boston College Eagles are now bowl-eligible after a road win in Blacksburg, VA against Virginia Tech. Although the Hokies got out to an early lead in the first, the Eagles took a 14-10 lead into halftime.
After the half, the Eagles extended their lead to 23-10, but Virginia Tech made it a 23-17 game early in the 4th quarter and took a one point lead on a pass from QB Michael Brewer to TE Bucky Hodges to give the Hokies a 24-23 lead.
With just over five minutes to go in regulation, Alex Howell gave Boston College the lead once again thanks to a 44 yard FG attempt. After the Eagles defense held the Hokies to a 3 and out on the following possession, the Eagles started to pull away thanks to a 57 yard TD run from QB Tyler Murphy to make it 33-24 Boston College. The Hokies would close the gap to 31-33 thanks to another driver from Brewer that was capped with a 5 yard TD pass with 1:09 to go, but the following onsides kick was recovered by the Eagles, which allowed them to simply take a knee and run out the clock.
Murphy went 8 for 15 with 110 yards and two TDs passing and 122 yards rushing with another TD. Charlie Callinan and Marcus Outlow each had TD receptions on Saturday as well.
This would be Boston College's second win in a row after beating Wake Forest on the road last Saturday by a 23-17 final. Next Saturday, Boston College will host the Louisville Cardinals at Chestnut Hill. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:25 PM ET and the game will be televised on ESPN 2.
NHL- After blowing a 3rd period lead to the Minnesota Wild at home, the Boston Bruins hit the road for a quick trip against the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night, getting past Buffalo 3-2 in OT thanks to a Brad Marchand tally just 1:20 into OT.
On Saturday night, the B's returned home to host the Ottawa Senators for the first time this season. Marchand would open up the scoring on Saturday night, giving Boston a 1-0 lead a little over a minute into the contest. Mark Stone got the equalizer for Ottawa with about 30 seconds to go in the first period, giving the Bruins a 3-1 lead.
The second period was all about Matt Fraser as he had two tallies less than 90 seconds apart to give Boston a 3-1 lead. Heading into the 3rd, the Bruins would add tack on some more insurance when Seidenberg got an unassisted goal just over two minutes into the period. Ottawa would get on the board once again with a Mika Zibanejad goal with about five minutes left to go, but that would be it for the Sens.
Tukks Rask turned aside 27 of 29 shots faced on Saturday as the Bruins went on to win by a 4-2 final in their first meeting with Ottawa.
The Bruins homestand continues on Tuesday when the B's will host the 4-2-3 Florida Panthers at the Garden. Puck is scheduled to drop at 7:00 ET and the game will be televised on NESN
NFL- The New England Patriots are going to the AFC championship game, and oddly enough it was done without any TD passes from Tom Brady.
The Patriots came off of their bye week hosting the Indianapolis Colts and QB Andrew Luck who were coming off a seemingly impossible comeback against the Kansas City Chiefs who led 38-10 to open up the second half.
Saturday's game was a different story, however. On the third play from scrimmage, Patriots CB Alfonzo Dennard picked off Andrew Luck on the Colts own 28 yard line and brought it all the way to the Colt's 2 yard line. Barely two minutes into the game, RB LeGarrette Blount punched it in on first and goal from the 2 yard line to put New England up on top 7-0.
The Patriots would add to their lead thanks to a five minute drive that started out on New England's own 26 and was capped by another short Blount to run to put New England up 14-0.
However, a quick strike by Andrew Luck to LaVon Brazil for a 28 yard TD pass on the Colt's next possession to cut the New England lead in half. New England and Indianapolis would trade three and outs towards the end of the first before the Patriots held on to the ball for nearly 7 minutes before Blount was once again able to punch it in and give New England a 21-7 lead.
Midway through the 2nd quarter, the Colts would get inside the New England red zone, but have to settle for a FG from the foot of former Patriot Adam Vinatieri to make it a 21-10 game. The Colts would get two more points on a bizarre play with just over two minutes left in the first half in which Indianapolis got a safety. On Indianapolis' next possession, they were able to move the ball inside the Patriots 40 before Luck was picked off by LB Dont'a Hightower, neutralizing the Colts threat and sending the teams into the locker room with the score 21-12 in favor of New England.
The second half got off to a better start for Indy as the Colts defense held the Pats to a 3 and out on their first possession, then Luck and the Colts offense got as far as the Pats 3 yard line before deciding to settle for a Vinatieri chip shot FG after being unable to punch it in on 3rd and goal from the New England 3. That put Indy within a touchdown, despite the inauspicious start.
The Patriots would start off their next drive pinned back on their own 12 yard line, but Brady connected with Danny Amendola for 53 yards, moving New England our from the shadow of their own goalposts. The Pats offense would get as far as the Colts 22 before a Colts penalty on 3rd and 8 moved the ball to the Indy 5 yard line. To change things up a little, it was Stevan Ridley who would hit paydirt for New England as they went for and got the 2 point conversion- thanks again to Ridley as New England extended their lead to 29-15.
But within the blink of an eye, the Colts made it a one-score game again. Indy started out on their own 20, but quickly moved the ball to New England territory on 2nd and 11 from their won 19 with a 46 yard completion from Luck to WR T.Y. Hilton. On the Very next play, Luck found Brazil again for a 35 yard TD reception to once again pull the Colts to within a TD as it was now a 22-29 game with five minutes to go in the third quarter.
However, whatever momentum the Colts had gained late in the 3rd seemingly evaporated when the Patriots started out with the ball on their own 27 for their first possession in the 4th quarter. On the very first play, it was none other than LaGarrette Blount who ran 73 yards for a TD to make it a 36-22 New England lead. To add to Indy's woes, Luck once again threw an INT deep in the Colts' own territory. After getting the ball back on the Colt's 18, Brady completed to WR Austin Collie for a 15 yard pickup on 3rd and 10, and it would Stevan Ridley to bring it home on 2nd and goal, giving New England the 43-22 lead with more than 11 minutes to go.
The Patriots would go on to win by the final of 43-22 on Saturday and await the winner of the Chargers vs Broncos game to see whether or not they'd host San Diego or travel to Denver for the AFC title game this weekend. New England opened up their ground game and had six rushing TDs- four from Blount and two from Ridley. Blount had 166 yards on 24 carries while Ridley had 52 yards on 14 carries. For the QBs, Brady went 13 for 25 with 198 yards and was sacked twice with no picks or TDs while Luck was 20 for 41 with 331 yards, 2 TDs, 4 interceptions and was sacked three times.
ELSEWHERE IN THE NFL- On Sunday, AFC West foes San Diego and Denver went head-to-head for the third time this season. The last time the Chargers were at Mile High, they stunned the Broncos by beating them 27-20 on Thursday night in Week 15- what would be the first of many 'must win' games for the Bolts if they were to make it to the playoffs.
Sunday's game didn't have quite the same feel as the Broncos shut San Diego out in the first half 14-0. However, after the Broncos added to their lead with a long Prater FG to make it 17-0 in the 3rd, the Chargers showed signs of life- getting on the board thanks to a 16 yard TD pass from QB Phillip Rivers to WR Keenan Allen to make it a 10 point game with 13 minutes to go in regulation.
However, the Broncos came right back and marched the ball down the field from their own 19 thanks to Peyton Manning, former Patriot Wes Welker and pretty big penalty against San Diego. Broncos RB Knowshon Moreno took care of the rest on the drive, getting three straight carries from the Bolts' 24 yard line, including his 3 yard TD run to make it a 24-7 ballgame.
That seemingly put the game out of reach for the Chargers, but with just over 8 minutes to go and starting off on their own 20 Rivers was able to keep the San Diego drive going after connecting with Allen for 49 yards on 4th and 5 from their own 25. Inside the Broncos' red zone, Rivers once again found Allen for a 16 yard TD pass to make it 24-14 with just under 6 minutes to go. To make things even more interesting, San Diego successfully recovered an onside kick at their own 40. Rivers was able to get as close as the Broncos 12 yard line, but on 4th and 5 the Chargers opted to settle for a Nick Novak FG, now making it a one-TD game with 3:53 to go.
In Lieu of another onside kick, the Chargers kicked the ball off and were hoping to corral the Broncos offense before too much time bled off the clock. However, the Broncos were able to successfully convert on 3rd and 17 inside their own 20 and keep the clock moving while forcing San Diego to burn their remaining timeouts. The game was essentially clinched when Moreno picked up a first down on 3rd and 1 on the Chargers 37 with 1:12 remaining and the Broncos would go on to win by a 24-17 final. The win sets up a Brady-Manning rematch for the AFC title game in Denver this weekend. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:00 PM ET and the game will be televised on CBS.
MEANWHILE, IN THE NFC....- This weekend's NFC title game will be an all NFC West affair as the 49ers bested the Carolina Panthers by a final of 23-10 while the Seattle Seahawks came out of their bye week and beat the New Orleans Saints by a 23-15 final.
This has set up a situation where the Seahawks have blocked ticket sales to credit cards with billing addresses from California in a bid to make the NFL's loudest stadium even more partisan. According to the organization, only buyers from Washington state, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska, Hawaii, Montana and the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta will be authorized to purchase tickets from the team's website and ticket exchange [The Broncos organization has reportedly taken similar measures to block ticket sales to addresses out side of the Rocky Mountain states- NANESB!]
Kickoff for the NFC title game is scheduled for 6:30 PM ET and the game will be televised on FOX.
NHL- Having met once already in the Garden, the B's travelled to Dallas to take on the Stars after salvaging one game out of their 3-game California road trip and losing to the Maple Leafs at the Garden. After a scoreless first period, the Burins got on the board in the closing seconds of the seconds thanks to a David Krejci goal with all of four seconds to go in the second. However, Erik Cole would get the equalizer for the stars just 1:18 into the third on a power play goal.
But the Bruins didn't have to wait long for the tiebreaker as Brad Marchand got the go ahead goal exactly two minutes later. After that, Milan Lucic broke a ten game streak without a goal with a power play tally 15:46 into the 3rd. However, Jamie Benn made it once again a 1-goal game with less than 90 seconds to go (ex-Bruin Tyler Seguin was credited with an assist) making it 3-2. However, the Stars would pull Keri Letonen for the extra attacker, but Patrice Bergeron would seal the game for Boston by a final of 4-2 thanks to an empty-netter with sixteen seconds remaining.
Chad Johnson got the start between the pipes for Boston and turned aside 32 of 34 shots faced while Kari Lehtonen stopped 37 of 40 that he faced. Boston was 1 for 4 on the power play while Dallas went 1 for 6 with the man advantage.
The season series between Dallas and Boston is evened up at 1 game apiece, with the Stars winning in OT back in November. From the Lone Star State, the Bruins will travel to the Windy City for a rematch of last season's Stanley Cup finals. Puck drops at 12:30 ET on Sunday afternoon and the game will be televised on NBC and the NHL Network for Canadian viewers.
MLB- The Los Angeles Dodgers and starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw have agreed to a 7 year deal worth more than $215 million, avoiding arbitration. The deal is said to be the most lucrative deal involving a single pitcher and the estimated $30 million annual salary for Kershaw will reportedly be the highest in the MLB.
Kershaw had a 16-9 record last season with a 1.83 ERA and won the NL Cy Young award in 2011 and 2013.
RED SOX- The Boston Red Sox and catcher AJ Pierzynski have agreed to terms on a 1 year, $8.25 million contract. After making his MLB debut with the Minnesota twins in 1998, Pierzynski played a single season for the San Francisco Giants before joining the Chicago White Sox from 2005 to 2012. Last season, Pierzynski and the Texas Rangers agreed to a 1 year contract and the veteran catcher hit .272 with 17 homers and 70 RBI in 134 games. The deal comes after Jarrod Saltalamacchia became a free agent and signed a 3-year, $21 million contract with the Miami Marlins.
Without a doubt, the football gods have certainly been smiling down on both the NFL and NCAA over the last couple of weeks. When I wasn't travelling for the holidays, I was doing my best to watch some of these instant classics.
Chris Carlson- AP Photo
NCAA FOOTBALL- This was supposed to be the final year of the BCS format, and if you're a fan of the game you couldn't have asked for a much better finish than the BCS Championship game from Pasadena's Rose Bowl on Monday night.
The title game pitted SEC's Auburn Tigers- no stranger to unlikely late-game heroics- against ACC Champion Florida State and Heisman winning freshman QB Jameis Winston. The Seminoles got on the board first with a 35 yard FG from Roberto Aguayo five minutes into the first quarter before Auburn responded with a drive that was capped by a 12 yard TD pass from QB Nick Marshall to RB Tre Mason with three and a half minutes to go in the first, making it 7-3.
The Tigers would score two more TDs in the second quarter to give Auburn a 21-3 lead before the Seminoles found the end zone for the first time thanks to a 3 yard rushing TD from 'Noles RB Devonta Freeman to make it 21-10 Auburn with less than two minutes in the half.
The 3rd quarter was pretty uneventful, with the 'Noles chipping away at the Auburn lead thanks to another Aguayo FG, making it 13-21 Auburn. This merely set the stage for a wild 4th quarter as Jameis Winston connected with Chad Abram on the 'Noles opening drive to put Florida State within one. Nursing a 21-20 lead and with the momentum starting to swing FSU's way, the Tigers had to settle for a chip shot FG from Cody Parkey after getting as far as the Seminoles 6 yard line with just over 5 minutes remaining, expanding the Auburn lead to 24-20.
That Auburn lead quickly went by the wayside on the ensuing kickoff when Levonte Whitfield went the distance- returning the kickoff 100 yards to give the Seminoles their first lead since the first quarter, 27-24.
Starting out on their own 25 with four and a half minutes to go, the Tigers were able to march down the field to FSU's 37 before Tre Mason was able to break free for a 37 yard TD run on 2nd and 15.
The good news for Auburn was that they were back out on top 31-27. The bad news was that there was still a minute and nineteen seconds to go for Winston and FSU to take the lead. After getting the ball back on their own 20, Jameis Winston connected with WR Rashad Greene for 49 yards, giving FSU the ball on the Tigers 23 with 1:05 left. A pass interference call on Auburn gave FSU the ball at the Tigers own 2 yard line. With 21 seconds to go, Winston connected to WR Kelvin Benjamin to put FSU back on top by 34-31.
There would be no last second heroics for Auburn as FSU's kickoff was returned to the Tigers 17 as Auburn lateraled the ball with before the game ended. Florida State breaks the SEC's winning streak in the FBS by going on to win by a 34-31 final. The last time a non-SEC team won the FBS title game was the Texas Longhorns in 2006.
This also marked the last game of the current BCS format before it goes to a playoff format in which the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl act as a semifinal in which the winners will advance to a BCS title game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX.
ELSEWHERE IN NCAA FOOTBALL- Here are the finals from the other bowl games:
Gildan New Mexico Bowl-
Washington State 45 Colorado State 48
Las Vegas Bowl-
Fresno State 20 USC 45
Idaho Potato Bowl- San Diego State 49 Buffalo 24
R+L Carrier New Orleans Bowl-
Tulane 21 LA-Lafayette 24
Beef O'Brady's Bowl-
Ohio 20 East Carolina 37
Sheraton Hawaii Bowl-
Boise St 23 Oregon St 38
Little Caesar's Bowl- Pitt 30 Bowling Green 27
San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl- Utah State 21 Northern Illinois 14
Military Bowl- Marshall 31 Maryland 20
Texas Bowl- Syracuse 21 Minnesota 17
Fight Hunger Bowl-
BYU 16 Washington 31
New Era Pinstripe Bowl-
Rutgers 16 Notre Dame 29
Belk Bowl-
Cincinnati 17 North Carolina 39
Russell Athletic Bowl-
Miami (FL) 9 Louisville 36
Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl-
Michigan 14 Kansas State 31
Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl-
Middle Tennessee 6 Navy 24
Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl- Mississippi 25 Georgia Tech 17
Valero Alamo Bowl- Oregon 30 Texas 7
National University Holiday Bowl-
Arizona State 23 Texas Tech 37
Advocare V-100 Bowl- Arizona 42 Boston College 19
Hyundai Sun Bowl-
Virginia Tech 12 UCLA 42
Auto Zone Liberty Bowl
Rice 7 Mississippi State 44
Chick Fil A Bowl-
Duke 48 Texas A&M 52
Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl- Nebraska 24 Georgia 19
Heart of Dallas Bowl-
UNLV 14 North Texas 36
Capital One Bowl-
Wisconsin 24 South Carolina 34
Outback Bowl-
Iowa 14 LSU 21
Rose Bowl-
Stanford 20 Michigan State 24
Tostitos Fiesta Bowl- Central Florida 52 Baylor 42
Allstate Sugar Bowl- Oklahoma 45 Alabama 31
AT&T Cotton Bowl-
Oklahoma State 31 Missouri 41
FedEx Orange Bowl- Clemson 40Ohio State 35
BBVA Compass Bowl-
Houston 24 Vanderbilt 41
GoDaddy.com Bowl
Ball State 20 Arkansas State 23
PENN STATE- Former Nittany Lions head football coach Bill O'Brien announced that he would be leaving Penn State to fill the head coaching vacancy with the Houston Texans. O'Brien, Penn State's first new head coach since 1966, took over from the late Joe Paterno amid allegations his successor and Penn State officials attempted to cover up sexual abuse committed by former offensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky between the late 1990s and 2009.
Under O'Brien, the Nittany Lions went 14-10- including 8-8 against Big Ten opponents- over the last two seasons. O'Brien fills the head coaching vacancy left in Houston when the Texans fired Gary Kubiak in December. After winning their first two games of the 2013 season, the Texans would go on to lose 14 consecutive games.
Meanwhile, Penn State officials are reportedly set to announce Vanderbilt's James Franklin as their new football head coach over the weekend.
Elise Amendola- AP
NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS- As far as both week 17 and the first round of the playoffs went, the NFL couldn't have asked for much more than what took place.
The Patriots came into week 17 after a satisfying 41-7 win over the defending Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens, essentially knocking Baltimore from playoff contention before wrapping up the regular season with a home game against the Buffalo Bills. With New England clinching a playoff berth by winning the AFC East, all that was left to play for on Dec 29th was a first round bye.
New England would go on to beat Buffalo by a 34-20 final in a rainy Gillette Stadium to secure a first round bye (along with Denver) in the playoffs. They had to wait for the outcome of the games for the Wild Card weekend to see who their opponent would end up be- they get a somewhat familiar for in the Indianapolis Colts, but this is the first time the two teams have met in the postseason since Peyton Manning's departure from Indy.
ELSEWHERE IN THE NFL- I cannot stress how much week 17 in the NFL exceeded expectations. The day started with the Ravens, Steelers, Dolphins, Chargers, Bears, Cowboys, Packers, Eagles and Cardinals with an outside shot at making the playoffs. By the end of the first round of games the Ravens and Dolphins were eliminated while Pittsburgh took care of Cleveland but still needed things to break Kansas City's way in the afternoon game to punch their ticket into the postseason.
In the NFC, a couple of long-standing division rivalries essentially became de-facto conference championship games- Green Bay bested the Chicago Bears in a surprisingly high-scoring game at Soldier Field to clinch the NFC North title while Philly bested the Cowboys by a 24-22 final in Dallas to be the lone NFC East representative in the postseason in the last primetime game of the regular season on Sunday night.
Meanwhile, it was an all AFC West Week 17 out west as the Broncos ran roughshod over the hapless Oakland Raiders and the San Diego Chargers dodged a bullet when the Chief's Ryan Succop missed a 41 yard FG attempt with the game tied at 24-24 with 8 seconds to go in regulation. The Chargers would end up punching their own ticket into the postseason and eliminating the Steelers when Nick Novak nailed a 36 yard FG with five and a half minutes remaining in overtime.
Wild Card weekend got underway with the Colts matched up against the Kansas City Chiefs on Saturday. The Colts fell into a seemingly insurmountable 31-10 hole at halftime and an early turnover quickly made it 38-10 Chiefs in the early part of the second half. However, after giving KC the short field and capitalizing on the turnover with 13:39 to go in the 3rd, the Colts would keep the Chiefs out of the end zone and came roaring back to win by a 45-44 final.
Meanwhile, the Saints racked up a road win over the Phillies at Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday night, going on to win by a final of 26-24.
Interestingly, the only contest of Wild Card weekend that wasn't close was the Bengals hosting the Chargers on Sunday afternoon. Cincinnati went into the locker rooms at halftime with a 10-7 lead but San Diego would go on to score twenty unanswered points to make it a 27-10 win and set up a rematch with division rival Denver on Sunday.
Wild Card weekend wrapped up with the 49ers travelling to Lambeau Field to face the Packers. San Francisco seemed undaunted by the cold temperatures and frozen tundra, going on to beat Green Bay by a 23-20 final.
This weekend's matchups are set- on Saturday, the Seahawks are coming off of their bye week to host the New Orleans Saints. That game kicks off at 4:35 PM ET, 1:35 PT and will be televised on FOX. Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, the Patriots will host the Colts after their first round bye. This prime time matchup is scheduled to kick off at 8:15 PM and will be televised on CBS.
On Sunday, the Panthers will host the 49ers at Bank of America stadium at 1:05 PM ET and can be seen on FOX while the Divisional weekend wraps up with the Broncos hosting the San Diego Chargers in the Mile High city with kickoff at 4:40 ET and can be viewed on CBS.
INDIANAPOLIS COLTS- The Indianapolis Colts announced this week that they have signed former Patriots receiver Deion Branch. Branch, who was named MVP of Super Bowl XXXIX has also logged time with the Seattle Seahawks and had worked out with the Colts in the previous month.
Its October. The leaves have turned, there's a chill in the air and for the first time in what feels like ages [spoiler alert!- NANESB!] the Red Sox are going to the World Series. All seems right with the world.
Matt Slocum- AP
RED SOX- After fending off a late Detroit surge in Game 5, the ALCS headed back to Boston with the Red Sox one win away from heading back to their first World Series in 6 years.
For Game 6, Clay Buchholz was once again facing off against this year's likely Cy Young winner Max Scherzer and each team managed to get a single but nothing else in the first inning. The game was mostly a pitcher's duel through the first four innings for each starter but after getting the first two batters out in the bottom of the fifth, Scherzer gave up a booking wall ball double to Xander Bogaerts. Jacoby Ellsbury then drove Bogaerts home with an RBI single, but the inning ended when the centerfielder was caught trying to steal second.
Boston's 1-0 lead didn't last long, though. Buchholz struggled immediately in the top of the 6th, allowing a leadoff walk to Torii Hunter and a single to Miguel Cabrera. Farrell had Franklin Morales come out of the pen, but Morales walked Prince Fielder to load the bases with nobody out. Former Indian and Red Sox catcher Victor Martinez then belted a 2-RBI single to put Detroit ahead 2-1. By this point, Workman came out of the pen and the Red Sox looked as though they were willing to concede the run to get a double play with nobody out and runners on first and third, but they didn't have to choose. Jhonny Peralta hit a ground ball up the middle- Pedroia cleanly fielded the ball and got the out at first before noticing that Fielder had hesitated on his way home for whatever reason- Fielder was caught in a rundown before getting tagged out by Saltalamacchia. While Peralta was able to advance to second, the runner at third had been erased and the Red Sox were one out away from getting out of a huge jam, which happened when Workman struck out Aviles.
By the bottom of the 6th, Scherzer was starting to show some signs of fatigue as Victorino led off the inning and was hit by a pitch. Then Pedroia drew a walk to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out. However, Scherzer would get the next three batters out, ending the Red Sox threat in the bottom of the 6th, despite Victorino and Pedroia advancing into scoring position on a wild pitch.
In the 7th inning, Workman got Infante to fly out to start off the inning before allowing a single to Austin Jackson. However, Jackson then was picked off by Workman for the second out of the inning, which was a good thing since Iglesias then got an infield single followed by Torii Hunter laying down a bunch and reaching first on a fielding error by Workman. Junichi Tazawa would then come out of the bullpen and get Miguel Cabrera to ground out.
Scherzer came back on in the bottom of the 7th, allowing a leadoff double to Johnny Gomes. After getting Drew to strike out swinging, Scherzer then walked Bogaerts before Tigers manager Jim Leyland brought in Drew Smyly. Jacoby Ellsbury then reached first on a fielding error by Iglesias to load up the bases and Leyland went to Veras.
That brought up a struggling Shane Victorino, who had gone 2-23 through the duration of the ALCS and 0-2 on the night, including an attempted bunt that he popped out on in the bottom of the 3rd. A flyout past the infield would be enough to bring a run home and tie the game, but Victorino would do one better.
Heading back to the 9th inning of Game 4, Victorino had gone 0-8, but with one swing of the bat, he put Boston back on top and stunned the Tigers. Pedroia struck out swinging and David Ortiz would ground out to end the inning, but the damage had already been done with Boston up 5-2.
Breslow would come on in the top of the 8th to get Fielder, Martinez and Kelly out before Koji Uehara would come on in the 9th and get Avila to strike out and Infante to ground out before allowing a single off the bat of Austin Jackson. Koji would then strike out former teammate Jose Iglesias to end the ballgame and Detroit's season and clinch the American League Championship Series.
Barry Chin- Boston Globe
One year after their worst season in 50 years, Boston wins the American League Pennant. For the second time since 2004 and fourth time since the end of World War II, Boston will play the St Louis Cardinals in the World Series.
Game 1 is scheduled for Wednesday night at 8:07 ET and will be televised on FOX. Jon Lester was named Boston's Game 1 starter and takes to the mound against Adam Wainwright.
Kathy Willens- AP
NFL- After getting out to an early first half lead, the Patriots needed some last minute heroics just to force overtime at the Meadowlands on Sunday. Sunday also marked the not-quite-triumphant return of Rob Gronkowski.
With the game tied at 7-7 late in the first quarter, CB Logan Ryan put the Patriots up thanks to a pick 6 off of Jets QB Geno Smith. The Jets would make it a 14-10 game thanks to a Nick Folk FG with 11:11 remaining in the first half. With just under 8 minutes to go, the Jets ended up punting from their own 29 yard line- a 38 yard return by Edelman gave New England the ball on the Jets 28 yard line and the Patriots were able to punch it in on a 17 yard TD run from Stevan Ridley to take a 21-10 lead heading into halftime.
The second half was dramatically different for New York as Brady was sacked on the very first play from scrimmage in the second half. For the second play, Brady ended up throwing a pick-six to safety Antonio Allen and the Jets pulled to within four points. The Jets would pull ahead on an 8 yard Geno Smith TD run with 4:33 to go in the 3rd to make it a 24-21 game and Nick Folk added three more points to make it a 27-21 game.
The Patriots seemed to regain their composure in the 4th, getting the ball as far as the Jets 21 before settling for a Gostkowski FG to make it a 24-27 Jets lead. After seemingly an entire quarter that consisted primarily of dropped passes and inopportune penalties for both teams, the Patriots. Last week, Brady needed a 1:13 to move the ball downfield with no timeouts. This Sunday, the Patriots had a couple of timeouts and the 2 minute warning when they got the ball back on their own 8 yard line with 2:10 remaining in the game. Brady had a couple of big completions to Edelman and Gronkowski to move them as far as the Jets 26, but a couple of dropped passes brought up 4th and 10 with less than 30 seconds remaining in the game. With 16 seconds to go, the Patriots tied it up at 27-27 on a Gostkowski FG and managed to force OT- although Brady went for the home run ball more than once.
After Brady made a 16 yard completion to Gronkowski for the first play in OT, the Patriots first possession of the OT fizzled at their own 38 and they were forced to punt. Starting out from their own 20, the Jets managed to advance as far as the New England 36. Nick Folk attempted to put the game away for New York with a 56 yard FG attempt that ended up going wide left.
However, the referees threw a flag on Patriots Defensive tackle Chis Jones- a 15 yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for 'pushing a teammate into an opposing formation'. This was a newly instituted rule this season, and apparently 7 weeks into the season the officials decided that 5:07 remaining in OT was the first time a penalty was called on this new infraction. The fifteen yard penalty was enough to move Folk closer and his 42 yard attempt was good for the Jets 30-27 win.
While the Patriots had a number of missed opportunities late in the game that could have avoided OT altogether [including converting a whopping one out of 12 3rd down attempts on the day- NANESB!], the most talked about play was Jones' penalty, which appeared to be a fairly routine maneuver that had never been penalized before. So much for that axiom about NFL and NHL referees generally keeping their whistles in the pocket in overtime for all but the most flagrant of penalties. Shame on me for stereotyping, but part of me is wondering which of New Jersey's numerous 'legitimate businessmen belonging to secretive Italian fraternal organization' had big money riding on this [the only flaw in this theory is that it's actually TOO obvious- NANESB!].
New England splits the season series 1-1 with the Jets and next week's game will keep in the AFC East as the Pats host the Miami Dolphins. It's another Sunday afternoon game with a kickoff scheduled for 1:00 PM and the game will be televised on CBS.
OTHER NFL NEWS- And then there was one.
Seven weeks in and the NFL is down to one undefeated team. Despite a late rally from Peyton Manning, the Denver Broncos came up short in Manning's homecoming at Indianapolis as the Colts with successor Andrew Luck quarterbacking won by a 39-33 final from Indianapolis' Lucas Oil stadium on Sunday night.
One does not need to look outside the AFC West for the remaining undefeated NFL team- Sunday's Bronco loss leaves the surprising Kansas City Chiefs as the only undefeated team in the NFL. The Chiefs managed to outlast the struggling Houston Texans at Arrowhead Stadium by a 17-16 final on Sunday afternoon. The Chiefs will play host to the Cleveland Browns next weekend and travel to Orchard Park, NY to take on the Buffalo Bills the first weekend in November before their bye week.
Chris O'Meara- AP
NHL- The Boston Bruins continued their road trip through Florida over the weekend, taking on the Tampa Bay Lightning for the second time since the October 3rd regular season opener.
The Bruins got out to a 1-0 lead with about 90 seconds left in the first thanks to a David Krejci goal. Despite going 0-4 on the power play, the Bruins would score four more thanks to McQuaid, Kelly, Bergeron and Thornton as Tukka Rask would turn aside all 23 shots he faced, notching his first shutout of the season in Boston's 5-0 win over Tampa Bay.
Unfortunately, very few people in Boston saw this gem live, as it coincided with Game 6 of the ALCS. Interestingly, the 5-2 Bruins will face a similar problem for their next game, when they take on the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night. The puck is scheduled to drop in Buffalo at 8:00 ET- almost the exact same time as the first pitch of the 2013 World Series- and the game will be televised on the NBC Sports network.
NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS- This weekend's matchup between the Colts and the Patriots marked the first time that the Indianapolis had played New England without starting QB Peyton Manning on the Colts roster since 1998. While Manning was recovering from spinal fusion surgery this time last year, the Colts struggled mightily under QB Kerry Collins and the final weeks of the Colts' season were referred to as the 'Andrew Luck Sweepstakes' as the bottom NFL teams were vying for the Stanford starting QB Andrew Luck.
Prior to the game, one of the broadcasters observed that as Tom Brady (not to mention current Colts teammate Adam Vinatieri) made his first Super Bowl appearence in February 2002, Andrew Luck was in the 6th grade. And despite getting out to the quick start in the first quarter, with the Colts getting out to an early 14-7 lead. The Pats would end up tying the game at 14-14 on a Julian Edelman punt return early in the second quarter. New England would take the lead for good when Pats cornerback Aquib Talib picked off Andrew Luck two plays into the Colts' next drive, returning it 59 yards for a pick-six.
The Pats and Colts would then trade field goals, giving New England a 17-24 lead at halftime. However, the seconds half was pretty much all New England as Brady connected with Julian Edelman and then Rob Gronkowski to make it 38-17 at the end of the 3rd and CB Alfonzo Denard intercepted an Andrew Luck pass and returned it 87 yards for paydirt. Although this was followed up by a 43 yard TD pass from Luck to Colts WR TY Hilton, the Patriots would get rushing TDs from Stevan Ridley and Shane Vereen to tie a franchise scoring record with 59 points [I'm wondering the the guys dressed up as minutemen who fire off a volley from their muskets brought enough powder Sunday- NANESB!].
New England wins this one going away by a 59-24 final on Sunday. Tom Brady went 25-35 with 3 TDs and 331 yards while the rookie Luck went 27 for 50 with 334 yards, 2 TDs and 3 interceptions (two of them run back for TDs).
However, the victory came at a cost as TE Rob Gronkowski suffered a broken forearm with less than 4 minutes to go in Sunday's contest. Gronkowski reportedly had surgery on his forearm on Monday and is expected to miss anywhere from 4 to 6 weeks.
The Patriots only have a couple of days off as their next game will be on Thanksgiving against the Jets at the Meadowlands. New England has won 15 out of the last 19 regular season contests against their AFC East rival, although the Patriots needed overtime to get past the Jets at Gilette Stadium earlier this season. The prime-time matchup is set to kick off at 8:20 ET and will be televised on NBC.
ELSEWHERE IN THE NFL- A couple of rather noteworthy developments from week 10 that I failed to mention.
- Somewhere in Miami, there's champagne corks popping as the Atlanta Falcons, the NFL's last undefeated team, suffered their first loss of the season at the Louisiana Superdome to Drew Brees and the resurgent New Orleans Saints by a 31-27 final. This Sunday, the Falcons managed to squeak past the Arizona Cardinals by a 23-19 final despite QB Matt Ryan throwing 5 picks.
- The NFC West leading San Francisco 49ers and the St Louis Rams had the NFL's first tie under the league's revised overtime rules after the teams headed into OT knotted at 24-24 and swapped missed FG attempts.
- Week 10 saw at least four teams lose their starting QBs- three of them due to concussions. Colin Kaepernick came in for San Francisco's Alex Smith in their game against St Louis while Nick Foles had to come in for Michael Vick in Philadelphia's loss to the Cowboys. In prime time games from Week 10, Bears QB was knocked out of Sunday night's game against the Houston Texans while Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger left Monday night's contest with Kansas City.
- Week 11 saw three overtime games (none of them ending in a tie) with the Cowboys needing OT to get past the Cleveland Browns, Tampa Bay getting past Carolina 27-21 in the extra quarter and the Houston Texans rallying past the Jacksonville Jaguars by a 43-37 final in OT.
AP Photo/Dan Ryan
NCAA FOOTBALL- Almost concurrently, two of the top-ranked teams in the polls were dealt their first losses of the season Saturday night.
Baylor jumped out to a 28-17 lead over #1 Kansas State in the First half and opened it up from there, upending the Wildcats hopes for a shot at the BCS title game after the Bears dealt them a 52-24 loss.
While that was going on, #2 Oregon and #13 Stanford were locked in a tight, low-scoring game with the Ducks up 14-7 late in the 4th when Stanford managed to tie it up on a 9 yard TD pass from Kevin Hogan to Zach Ertz with 2:17 to go and forcing OT, where Stanford's Jordan Williamson clinched the game with a 37 yard FG.
The Ducks loss could set up a scenario where they may not even be playing in the Pac 12 title game. Should Stanford beat #17 UCLA, then both the Cardinals and Bruins will meet in a rematch the following week in the Pac 12 chamionship game. Oregon has one remaining regular season game- their intrastate rivals, #15 Oregon State. If the Bruins and Ducks win their respective games this weekend, they'll meet in the December 1st Pac 12 title game.
The loss comes as good news for Notre Dame, who after shutting out Wake Forest 38-0, will travel to Los Angeles to take on the USC Trojans for their regular season finale. USC is coming off of a 10-point loss to crosstown rivals UCLA.
Meanwhile, Kansas State's remaining game is against the Texas Longhorns on December 1st. Should Notre Dame lose and Kansas State, Oregon and Alabama win out, that will once again murky up the FBS championship picture as there would be a number one-loss teams vying for a spot in the National Championship- the Georgia Bulldogs and Florida Gators have entered some chamionship conversations as well pending the outcome of their 'rivalry weekend' games; Alabama has Auburn to cap off the regular season while Georgia has the Georgia Tech Yellowjackets and Florida has the 10th ranked Florida State Seminoles.
BOSTON COLLEGE- While it's been an off year for Virginia Tech, it's been even more of an off year for the BC Eagles. Although the Eagles got off to a 13-3 lead at halftime, the Hokies clawed back and the second half was a back and forth affair that saw Boston College take a 23-20 over the Hokies with 5 minutes to go in regulation before Virginia Tech tied it up with a late FG with 1:10 remaining.
The Hokies got the ball first in the OT and scored a TD on their opening posession, meaning that BC needed a touchdown of their own just to extend the overtime. However, the game ended when Chase Rettig's completion to RB David Dudeck was only good for 8 yards on 4th and 12 from the Hokies 27 yard line. Eagles lose by a final of 30-23 in OT at Chestnut Hill.
The Eagles will wrap up their disappointing football season with an away game against the North Carolina State Wolfpack at Raliegh on Saturday afternoon at 3:00 ET.
ELSEWHERE IN THE ACC- The University of Maryland Board of Regents has accepted an invitation from the Big 10 conference and will start playing there starting with the 2014-2015 academic season. Maryland was a charter member of the Atlantic Coast Conference during its 1953 founding.
This followed reports over the weekend that Rutgers was set to join the Big 10, exiting the Big East conference. Maryland will become the furthest south member of the Big 10 conference as well.
The move has also sparked speculation on whether or not there would be any movement from either UConn or UMass to fill the vacancies left in eithethe Big East and ACC left by Rutgers and Maryland's respective departure [Although the ACC announced last year they would be adding the Pitt Panthers and Syracuse Orangemen beginning with the 2013 season- NANESB!].
UMASS- Despite shutting out Buffalo 13-0 in the first half, the Bulls came roaring back in the second half and capitalized on some UMass special teams errors to get on the board and take the lead.
Buffalo got on the board with a blocked punt attempt returned for a touchdown, slicing the UMass lead in half. The Minutemen then took a 19-7 lead on a 3 yard rushing TD from RB Micheal Cox. However, the two point attempt failed and the Bulls would go on to score three unanswered TDs to go on and win by a 29-19 final.
UMass wraps up their MAC debut season with one final home game this Saturday at 3:00 PM against the Central Michigan Chippewas at Gilette Stadium.
UCONN- Interestingly, after already having one in late October, this is another bye week for the Huskies. Their most recent game was a 24-17 home win over the Pitt Panthers at East Hartford and on Saturday, they'll travel to Papa John's Cardinal Stadium in Louisville to take on the 9-1 Louisville Cardinals at Noon eastern before wrapping up the regular season at home against the Cincinnati Bearcats at home on Dec 1st.
Although this has been a disappointing year for UConn Football, the 4-6 Huskies still have an outside shot at a bowl game if they somehow manage to win their final two games of the season.
NEW HAMPSHIRE- Even though they were blown out by the Towson Tigers by a 64-35 final on Saturday (including Towson running the score by a 34-7 margin in the second half), the 8-3 UNH Wildcats have made the NCAA FCS bracket.
The Wildcats- who finished 3rd in the Colonial conference- will face off against the Wofford Terriers at Spartanburg, SC on December 1st. The game will kick off at 2:00 ET and will be streaming on ESPN3.
Villanova and Old Dominion have also made the tournament.
MLB- The Toronto Blue Jays have followed up their acquisition of Jose Reyes, Mark Buerligh and Josh Johnson from the Florida Marlins by signing free agent outfielder Melky Cabrera to a 2 year, $16 million deal this week.
After playing the first half of the 2012 season with the San Frnacisco Giants, Cabrera recieved a 50 game suspension earlier this season for testing positive for performance enhancing drugs after the All Star Game. Although he was eligible for the postseason roster, the Giants declined to bring Cabrera back after serving his suspension.
The Blue Jays also announced the return of Josh Gibbons as the team's manager after John Farrell left for Boston last month.
RED SOX- On Thursday night, it was looking as though the Red Sox were going to squander a perfectly good start from Clay Buchholz where he went 8 full innings, allowing 1 run on six hits.
However, Chicago's Quintana had done one better than Buchholz, going eight shutout innings and allowing with Boston managing just 5 hits. Through eight innings, the only scoring in the game was Adam Dunn coming home on an Alex Rios sac fly in the top of the 4th.
In the top of the 9th, Alfredo Aceves got out of a 2-out situation with runners on 2nd and 3rd to keep the game at 1-0. In the bottom of the 9th, Carl Crawford led off the inning with a single, but was out on second on a Dustin Pedroia groundout. Adrian Gonzalez would follow that up with a single, setting up this bit of awesomeness from Cody Ross
Just in case the embedded video isn't working, Cody Ross belted his THIRD 3-run homer in 2 nights for give the Red Sox the walkoff 3-1 win [congratulations to whoever has Ross on their Fantasy team- NANESB!]. The game winning blast by Ross gave came off of White Sox reliever Addison Reed and gave the Red Sox their 3rd win against the White Sox in this week's 4-game series. White Sox manager Robin Ventura gave Kevin Youkilis the night off- his first and only in the 4-game series at Fenway.
Friday night's game will see the Red Sox host the Toronto Blue Jays with Beckett going to the mound [5-7; 4.44 ERA] against the Jay's Aaron Laffey [1-1; 3.38 ERA]. The game gets underway at 7:10 ET with the game being televised on NESN.
NFL- The Indianapolis Colts and first round draft pick Andrew Luck have agreed to terms on a 4-year, $22 million contract this week. A highly sought-after product of Stamford, Luck was the #1 overall draft pick in the NFL this year.
The Colts' interest in luck prior to the draft led to speculation that All-Star QB Peyton Manning would be released. He eventually signed with the Broncos for a 5 year, $96 million contract.
The Colts have included an option for a 5th year in their contract with luck.
ELSEWHERE IN THE NFL- Seattle Seahawks RB Marshawn Lynch was arrested over the weekend for driving while intoxicated in the Oakland area. The California Highway Patrol said that Lynch submitted to a test while in custody and that it showed he was over the legal limit.
In March, Lynch had signed a 4-year $31 million contract extension with the Seahawks. His trial begins on Aug 14, although it isn't know if he faces any sanctions from the team or the NFL front office.
BOSTON BRUINS- It was no doubt a weekend to forget for the defending Stanley Cup champion Bruins. Not only did the B's drop Saturday's home game against the Islanders and Sunday's nationally televised game against the NY Rangers, Boston is expected to be without the services of goalie Tukka Rask after he was injured in Saturday's game. The B's announced on Monday that they expected Rask to miss anywhere from 4-6 weeks with a lower-abdomen/groin strain.
So with the goaltending depth chart for Boston beginning and ending with Tim Thomas, the Bruins headed to Tornto on Turesday night hoping to break their 2-game skid. For the Leafs, this would be the first home game under new head coach Randy Carlile.
Although the Leafs would get out to an early 1-0 lead thanks to a Carl Gunnarson goal, the Bruins were able to tie it up at 1-1 with a tally from Jordan Caron.
Toronto would briefly re-take the lead on a power play goal from John-Michael Liles early in the 2nd before Tyler Seguin and Chris Kelly would score about 40 sconds apart to give Boston their first lead of the evening. However, about midway through the 2nd the Leafs tied the contest up at 3-3 thanks to another power play tally- this time from former Bruin Phil Kessel.
But in the closing minutes of the 2nd, the Bruins would break the deadlock with another goal from Caron followed by Tyler Seguin's second goal of the evening to make it 5-3.
The Leafs would shave the Boston lead to just one goal late in the 3rd thanks to a Mikhail Grabovski goal, but the Bruins would hold off the Leafs for the 5-4 win and a 5-0 lead of the season series.
Tim Thomas stopped 25 of 29 shots faced while Jonas Gustavsson allowed in 5 of the 33 shots he faced on Tuesday night. Toronto had four power play opportunities and converted on two of them while Boston went 0 for 2 with the man advantage.
The Bruins next game will be on Thursday night against a suddenly very relevant Buffalo Sabres, who are tied with the Washington Capitals for the 9th spot in the Eastern conference and just two points behind Winnipeg for the 8th and final playoff spot in the Eastern conference [still trying to wrap my noggin around the fact that Winnipeg is back, but in the EASTERN conference- NANESB!].
Thursday night's game at the TD Banknorth Gargen gets underway at 7:00 ET and will be televised on NESN and MSG networks.
OTHER BRUINS NEWS- Veteran goalie Marty Turco has cleared NHL waivers and will join the Boston Bruins to releive Tim Thomas in the final month of the regular season.
The option of calling up Anton Kudhobin from Providence wasn't a viable one since he's still nursing a wrist injury. With the trade deadline having passed last week, the Bruins were left having to resort to scouring the waiver wire.
Turco's most recent NHL experience came during the 2010-2011 season with the Chicago Blackhawks where he appeared in net for 29 games with a 3.02 GAA. After a stint as an in studio analyst for the NHL Network, Turco signed a short term contract with Red Bull Salzburg of the Erste Bank Hockey League in Austria in December 2011.
Because Turco was signed by Boston after the trade deadline, he will not be eligible to join the Bruins postseason roster.
NFL- After 14 seasons, including two Super Bowl appearences, QB Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts have parted ways. At a press conference alongside Colts owner Jim Irsay, an emotional Manning bid the organization farewell as speculations already ramped up about a possible destination for the veteran free agent QB.
Manning was due a $28 million bonus this week if he was to remain with the Colts. While Indianapolis was reluctant to stake their franchise on the well-being of Manning's neck, Washington, Tennessee, Miami, Seattle, the Jets and Arizona are all reportedly interested in Peyton's services and are well aware of the risk a big money contract with him entails.
Manning was drafted out of the University of Tennessee as the first overall draft pick by the Colts in the 1998 NFL draft. This season, the Colts have a 2-14 record, once again giving them the first overall draft pick in the upcoming 2012 NFL draft.
PITTSBURGH STEELERS- The Pittsburgh Steelers released veteran WR Hines Ward after 14 seasons, it was announced last week. In a statement, Ward said he was disappointed that he could not remain with Pittsburgh but repeated that he was determined to play in the NFL in the upcoming 2012 season.
Ward was a 3rd round draft pick out of Georgia in 1998 and the Steelers all-time leader in receptions and recieving yards. Both Ward and Jerry Rice are the only NFL wide recievers with at least 1000 career receptions and 2 Super Bowl victories.
RED SOX- Non-roster invitee Justin Germano pitched a pair of shutout innings in Boston's 3-3 tie with Toronto. The game was halted after 9 innings because the split-squad Blue Jays had run out of players by then.
The Red Sox will next travel to Jupiter, FL to take on the defending World Series Champion St Louis Cardinals. Josh Beckett is scheduled to get the start against the Card's Jamie Garcia.
CELTICS- While the second hald of this abbreviated NBA season seemed to be getting off to a much better start for the Celtics than the first half, Boston had a chance to take sole posession of 1st place in the Atlantic Division with Wednesday night's head-to-head matchup against the Philadelphia 76ers at Philly.
76ers guard Evan Turner had a career night, with 26 points for Philly in a 103-71 rout of the Celtics. This is the C's first loss since the All Star weekend, but it still cost them a shot a first place. They'll return to the Garden on Friday night to take on the Portland Trailblazers on Friday night- tipoff is at 7:30 and the game will be televised on Comcast Sports New England.
ELSEWHERE IN THE NBA- As bad as Wednesday night's thumping from Philly was, one could always feel better knowing that the vaunted LA Lakers pissed away a 21 point lead to the lowly Washington Wizards to lose by a final of 101-106 on Wednesday night.
NFL: Q- What's the difference between Tim Tebow and Barack Obama?
A- One is a phony Messiah who fooled a bunch of people after some convincing performances in Denver. The other plays football for the Broncos.
Marc Piscotty/Getty Images
New England came into Mile High Stadium this week looking to clinch the AFC East and snap the Broncos 6-game winning streak on Sunday, which for awhile was looking like a tall order after barely holding off the Washington Redskins last week. Even before Tebow-mania, recent history hadn't been particularly kind to the Patriots at Mile High.
Starting at their own 20, the Broncos methodically marched down the field on the game's opening possession and hit paydirt when QB Tim Tebow rushed into the end zone from the Pats 9 yard line, although the point-after was blocked and returned as far as mid field before the play was blown dead- making it a 6-0 contest.
New England responded in kind, with a quick drive that saw Pats QB Tom Brady connect with TE Aaron Hernandez for a 46 yard catch and carry (most of those yards coming after Hernandez shed some tacklers and started running laterally to pick up some blockers) before Brady completed a 33 yard pass to WR Chad Ochocinco for #85's first TD pass of the season. Gostkowski's PAT was good and New England took a 7-6 lead.
Denver responded to New England's quick, efficient 2:25 scoring drive with an even quicker one of their own, starting from their own 18. Two minutes and 18 seconds later, Broncos RB Lance Ball rushed 32 yards for paydirt and the Broncos went for the pont-after to make it a 13-7 contest. The Patriots would do nothing when they got the ball back (they did get a 1st down thanks to a Denver penalty, but nothing came of it).
The Broncos started on their own 29 and get the ball as far as the Patriots 8 yard line before settling for a short Matt Prater FG to take a 16-7 lead. Curiously, after scoring so swiftly and with such ease to open up the game, that would be the last time the Broncos would find the end zone or split the uprights until the 4th quarter. New England would close the gap to 14-16 on the following drive after Wes Welker was ruled down at the 1 instead of in the end zone on a 19 yard pass from Brady, but Brady was able to connect with Hernandez for paydirt.
On the Broncos next possession, Lance Ball fumbled on the first play and Pats LB Rob Ninkovitch recovered it at the Denver 19 yard line. Althought they got the ball as tantalizingly close as the Broncos 3, they decided to play it relatively safe and opted for a short Gostkowski FG instead of trying to punch it in on 4th down, with New England taking the lead for the first time on Sunday by a 17-16 score.
Denver's next possession would be even more disastrous after Tebow was sacked and Pats DE Mark Anderson came up with the ball. With the short field, New England was able to move inside the Denver red zone and punch it in to make it a 24-16 New England lead.
After Denver's first three and out of the day, New England got the ball back with 40 seconds left in the half. That also turned out to be a 3 and out and with 14 seconds left in the half, Zoltan Mesko punted to Broncos return man Quan Cosby, who fumbled the punt with Dance Fletcher recovering for New England at the Broncos own 17 yard line with 3 seconds remaining. With no time to run a play, the Pats trotted out Gostkowski for a fairly short FG attempt which split the uprights as time expired in the first half, making it a 27-16 game at halftime.
After a halftime show that included a monkey riding a border collie (no- seriously!)the second half was seemingly all New England, with Tebow getting sacked and the Pats adding to their lead on a Danny Woodhead TD run to pad the lead to 34-16. Although Tebow would rush for another TD in the 4th, it was a case of too little too late. New England would get a 4th quarter TD of their own when Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis punched it in on 3rd and goal with 4 minutes and 10 seconds left to put the game away 41-23.
The Broncos haven't lost since October 30th against the Detroit Lions, but even with Sunday's loss, still retain first place in the AFC West.
Their sixth consecutive win, coupled with the New York Jets loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, means that New England clinches their 3rd straight AFC East title and ninth since the 2001 season.
New England will next host Miami on Christmas Eve (day) at 1:00 PM on CBS.
OTHER PATRIOTS NEWS: DE Aaron Carter will require season-ending surgery on his leg. Carter injured his leg in Sunday's contest against the Broncos and had to leave the field on a cart.
OTHER NFL NEWS: In a fairly surprising development that had members of the 1972 Miami Dolphins popping corks, the defending Superbowl Champion Green Bay Packers were handed their first loss of the season by the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday.
This loss was Green Bay's first regular season (or postseason) loss since December 19, 2010 in Foxborough, MA against the Patriots- nearly a year ago to the day [Altho' there was no Aaron Rogers starting for the Packers that night- NANESB!].
Sunday also marked Romeo Crennel's coaching debut in Kansas City after the Chiefs fired head coach Todd Haley.
INDIANAPOLIS COLTS: On the flip side of the win/loss ratio, the Indianapolis Colts won their first game of the season on Sunday, defeating the Tennessee Titans by a final of 13-27.
The win actually would put them in jeopardy of losing out on what many are calling 'The Andrew Luck Sweepstakes' [Assuming the #1 overall draft spot in the NFL goes to the Stanford QB- NANESB!], as they are now only a game behind the St Louis Rams and Minnesota Vikings.
NHL: What was billed as a clash of the titans for first place on Saturday in the Eastern Conference it turned out it wasn't much of a battle.
The Bruins jumped all over Philly early and often, roughing up the Atlantic Conference-leading Flyers 4-0 by the first intermission before adding two more- one in the 2nd and one in the 3rd. Tim Thomas turned aside all 31 shots he faced on Saturday afternoon in Boston's very convincing 6-0 win.
However, on Monday night the Bruins opened up the scoring with a goal from Benoit Pouliot at the 12:13 mark of the 1st before the Habs got the equalizer off the stick of Tomas Plekanec not even a minute later to make it 1-1 heading into the 1st intermission.
Early in the second, David Krejci would break the deadlock to make it 2-1 and later in the 3rd, the Bruins would get the insurance goal from Brad Marchand to make the score 3-1. As it turns out, the Bruins would need that insurance goal as Erik Cole got a late tally for the Habs with less than 3 minutes to go to make it a 1-goal game. However, the Bruins would hold on to win their 5th in a row, with two out of their last three wins coming against opponents in the Northeast Division.
Tim Thomas stopped 33 of 35 shots faced while Montreal's Carey Price made 28 saves on the 31 shots he faced Monday Night. Neither team scored on the power play, with the Bruins failing to capitalize on a double-minor earlier in the game.
Boston will have most of the week off, not playing again until December 23rd [Christmas eve eve? NANESB!] at home against the Florida Panthers. The puck drops at 7 PM and the game will be televised on NESN.
OTHER BRUINS NEWS: Bruins F Milan Lucic received a 1-game suspension for his hit on Philadelphia Flyers C Zac Rinaldo, despite reports citing Rinaldo himself as saying the hit wasn't deserving of additional punishment. Lucic also forfeits more than $22,000 in wages for the hit.
NCAA FOOTBALL: The Bowl season got underway Saturday starting with the 2011 Gildan New Mexico Bowl, where Temple rolled over Wyoming by a 37-15 final [reportedly ratings were down on that one and the organizers were trying to line up a new sponsor from the area- NANESB!].
Later on in the day was the Famous Idaho Potatoes Bowl from Boise, ID. The Utah State Aggies led for most of the game in that one, but trailing 17-23 and with less than 20 seconds to go, Ohio Bobcats QB Tyler Tettleton ran the ball in for the game-tying TD and the point-after attempt was good (not always a given, particularly in the NCAA) to give the Bobcats the 24-23 victory and their first-ever Bowl win.
To cap off Saturday's slate of bowl games was the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl from the Superdome between the San Diego State Aztecs and Louisiana-Lafayette in what was almost literally a home game for the Ragin' Cajuns.
This was Lafayette's first bowl appearance since getting promoted to Division 1 football (now FBS). After entering the 4th quarter trailing 17-26, the Aztecs managed to put together some consistent drives and keep the Ragin' Cajuns out of the end zone before taking a 30-29 lead thanks to an 11 yard reception by Colin Lockett with 53 seconds remaining in the game.
Chris Graythen/Getty Images
Starting from their own 18 and with 35 seconds remaining, the Ragin' Cajuns got the ball as far as the Aztecs 38 yard line before San Diego State committed a 5 yard offsides penalty with 4 seconds left on the clock. This would put the Ragin' Cajuns a 1st down and more importantly 5 more yards for Lafayette Kicker Brett Baer to split the uprights and give the Ragin' Cajuns their first ever FBS Bowl win by a final of 32-30.
Bowl Week continues with the Beef O'Brady Bowl from St Petersburg, FL featuring Florida International and Marshall on Tuesday night, the Poinsettia Bowl from San Diego between Louisiana Tech and #16 Texas Christian on Wednesday followed by the MAACO bowl from Las Vegas which pits 6-6 Arizona State against #8 Boise State Thursday night.
Photo: San Antonio Express-News, MICHAEL MILLER
NCAA VOLLEYBALL: First of all, I have to thank the NBA owners and players association for their labor dispute.
Why is that, Fenway? you might be asking- and with good reason. Under normal circumstances, the NBA season would've gotten underway in late October. Instead, with the protracted labor dispute there were no games for various regional sports networks such as Fox Sports West or Comcast New England to televise. So what other sport played on the hardwood was televised instead? NCAA Women's volleyball.
Although I've long considered volleyball a fast-paced and involving sport, the fact that there are so many attractive young women playing the game for any number of schools is further incentive to watch- not just the proverbial cherry on top- more like another sundae on top. [Let's see.....if given the choice of professional floppers, loudmouths and thugs versus fit, attractive college-aged women nimbly jumping around in short-shorts patting each other on the tucchus every five minutes- guess which one I'll be dedicating the majority of my time to?- NANESB!]
Sad to say, despite volleyball being invented in New England, schools from New England don't really fare too well in the NCAA Division 1 Volleyball tournament. This year, out of all the schools in New England, only Sacred Heart and Yale qualified for the 2011 Volleyball tournament and neither one of them advanced very far.
This is not due to cold weather neccesarily- Penn State and a number of schools from the midwest show up in the NCAA Finals on a fairly regular basis. In fact, Penn State holds the most Women's Volleyball Titles in the NCAA.
This year was no different, as the Illini advanced to their first ever Divison 1 Women's Volleyball match, pitted against UCLA for the title at San Antionio's Alamodome. For it's part, UCLA hasn't won a title in 20 years, although it did make a few Finals appearences in in the 1990s.
After getting off to a 1-0 lead, the Bruins found themselves knotted up 1-1 after the Illini went on a tear in the second set, but UCLA rallied late to take the 2-1 lead and went on to win the final set from there by a 3-1 final.
The win is UCLA's fourth volleyball title, putting them third all-time behind Penn State (5 titles) and Stamford (six titles). Interestingly, UCLA upended Penn State in this year's semifinals.
