Magnolia State Madness Sports Grits Chowdah Update- Mississippi Blues for Aggies, Crimson Tide; Royal Flush- Kansas City Sweeps Angels to Advance to 1st ALCS Since 1985; Patriots Bounce Back Against Cincinnati.

NCAA FOOTBALL- Every once in awhile, I'll encounter a subset of football fans who are outright dismissive of college football, sneering that REAL football is played on Sundays- as though their favorite NFL player was cultivated in some magic football orchard hidden off from the rest of the world until their product was ready. On Saturday, I genuinely felt bad for those people.

Where to start? Obviously the biggest story of Saturday afternoon was the Ole Miss vs #1 Alabama game in Oxford, MS. For the first time since 2003, when Eli Manning was the Rebels QB, Ole Miss bested the Alabama Crimson Tide thanks to a 4th quarter rally. This also marks the first time since 1962 that the Rebels have gotten out to a 5-0 start.

Midway through the 4th quarter, Mississippi trailed 17-10 before pulling even on a 34 yard TD pass from Bo Wallace to WR Vance Sanders with 5 and a half minutes remaining in regulation. With the ensuing kickoff, Alabama's Christion Jones fumbled and Mississippi recovered on the Alabama 31 yard line. It didn't take long for the Rebels to capitalize, with Wallace connecting with RB Jaylen Walton for a TD catch and run to put Ole Miss up 23-17 with just under 3:00 remaining in the 4th. The Rebels attempted to go for two, but were unsuccessful, giving Alabama one last chance to pull ahead for good in the final minutes.

With just 37 seconds to go, the Tide had one last shot at the end zone, but Rebels outfielder-turned-DB Senquez Golson managed to get his hands on a Blake Sims pass attempt in the end zone and after a lengthy review was able to corral it for a galme-clinching INT.

Wallace ended up throwing for 251 total yards and 3 TDs, including two in the fourth quarter. The victory propels Ole Miss to 3 in college football polling as well.

This Saturday, the Running Rebels will travel to College Station, TX to take on #14 Texas A&M.

ELSEWHERE IN THE SEC- Saturday's stunner in Oxford was by no means the only upset in the SEC, let alone NCAA Football. The only-slightly-less-favored Aggies fell to Mississippi State in Starkville by a 48-31 final in what ended up being a track meet. Like in-state rival Ole Miss, the Mississippi State Bulldogs are out to a 5-0 start and will host #2 Auburn this weekend.

ELSEWHERE IN NCAA FOOTBALL- The upsets actually began as early as Thursday night, with the Arizona Wildcats holding on against the #2 Oregon Ducks by a 31-24 final. On Firday night, the Utah State Aggies handed #18 BYU their first loss of the season, going on to win 35-20.

On Saturday, Texas Christian handed the Oklahoma Sooners their first loss in a wild one at Amon G Carter Stadium in Fort Worth that included Horned Frogs LB Paul Dawson picking off Sooners QB Trevor Knight's pass and running it back 41 yards for a TD early in the 4th quarter. On the point after attempt, it was successfully blocked before being run back for 2 points by Sooners DT Jordan Phillips to cut TCU's lead to 37-33. However, that would be the last of the scoring and #25 TCU remains undefeated and advances to #9 in the college football standings while #4 Oklahoma was handed their first loss and dropped down to #11 in the rankings.

But there was more......especially out on the West Coast. Utah ended up beating #8 UCLA by a final of 30-28 while Arizona State trailed #16 USC late in the fourth. The Sun Devils had the ball on the Trojans 46 and trailed 34-32 with just 7 seconds left in the game when this happened.



The Trojans would go on to lose by a 38-34 final, their second loss since playing Boston College at Chestnut Hill and their first loss of the season within the Pac 12 conference.

MEANWHILE IN THE ACC- The Boston College Eagles had the weekend off after their September 27th 24-21 loss to Colorado state, but will resume this weekend in Raleigh, NC as they take on the North Carolina State Wolfpack on Saturday. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 ET and the game will be broadcast on ESPN3 streaming.

NFL- And then there were none.

The last of the undefeated teams in the NFL this season turned out to be the Cincinnati Bengals, and that only lasted until Sunday night against New England at Gillette Stadium.

Heading into Sunday night's game there were a number of storylines- could the Pats and Brady bounce back after last week's fiasco at Arrowhead, not to mention the final remaining undefeated team in the NFL [Arizona also got out to a 3-0 start, had a bye and then lost to the Broncos earlier in the day- NANESB!]. But what really had people talking during and after the game was the Patriot's tribute to the cancer-stricken daughter of defensive lineman Devon Still in the 3rd quarter.

During a timeout in the third quarter on Sunday night, the Patriots let Still know that they were with him and his daughter during their battle. Patriots cheerleaders donned Still’s Bengals jersey as the music video played on the big screens, and Patriots owner Robert Kraft donated $25,000 to the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Medical Center in Leah’s name.

Still was shown on the big screen following the music video, and got a little emotional when he received an ovation from the Gillette Stadium crowd. You could see tears stream down his face,

Reaction across Social Media was quick, with accolades for the Patriots as well as pledges of support from other NFL players and owners for Devon and Leah Still. Still was sporting a nose strip that had the hashtag #LeahStrong on the Sunday night game.

Meanwhile, on the field Brady seemed to have quieted his critics with a TD pass in the first half as well as a 1 yard Stevan Ridley TD run and 3 Gostkowski field goals to make it a 20-3 game at the half.

Cincinnati scored on their second possession of the second half with a 37 yard TD pass from QB Andy Dalton to WR Mohamed Sanu to make it a 20-10 lead for New England, but on the following possession, Brady capped an 86 yard drive with a 16 yard TD Pass to TE Rob Gronkowski to put New England up 27-10. Things only got worse for the Bengals when they fumbled the ensuing kickoff and it was recovered by Kyle Arrington on special teams and run back for the second Patriots TD in just 6 seconds of playing time.

Unlike Kansas City, the Patriots would go on to cruise to a 43-17 win, with all the scoring in the 4th quarter coming off the leg of Gostkowski. Tom Brady would go 23-35 with 292 yards and 2 TDs while Cincinnati's Andy Dalton would go 15-24 with 204 yards and 2 TDs. Stevan Ridley would lead New England's ground attack after rushing for a total of 113 yards and a TD.

This sets up only the second intra-conference matchup for New England this weekend when the Patriots travel to Orchard Park, NY to take on the Buffalo Bills, who are sporting a similar 3-2 record [but do have at least one win against an AFC East opponent this year- NANESB!]. Kickoff is at 1:00 ET and the game will be televised on CBS.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NFL- Week 6 gets underway with a Thursday night AFC South matchup between the Houston Texans and Indianapolis Colts. Kickoff is 8:25 PM and the game will be televised on the NFL Network.

MLB PLAYOFFS For the first time since 1985, the Kansas City Royals are advancing to the American League Championship Series. This comes after the team completed a sweep of the Anaheim Angels at Kauffman Stadium on Sunday night- a sweep of the team that could boast the best regular season in MLB, no less.

The only time the favored Angels led was in the first inning when outfielder Mike Trout belted a 412 foot solo homer to deep left center off of starter James Shields- I'm not talking just game 3, but the only time in the entire American League division series. In the bottom of the 3rd, a shaky CJ Wilson ended up loading the bases with singles to Nori Aoki and Lorenzo Cain and waling Billy Butler after striking out Eric Hosmer. That brought up the home-grown Alex Gordon, who belted a 2-2 offering off of the wall in left center field to clear the bases with a 3-RBI double and give the Royals the lead back as they led it 3-1.

Halos manager Mike Socia went to the bullpen early, but that wouldn't slow down the Royals as they got two more runs in the bottom of the 3rd thanks to a 2-run Eric Hosmer homer to make it a 5-1 game. The Angels would close the gap a little thanks to a 391 foot solo homer from Albert Pujols, but the Royals would start of pull away in the 4th thanks to a Mike Moustakas solo homer and Lorenzo Cain RBI sac fly to give KC a 7-2 lead.

The Royals would go on to cruise to an 8-3 win over the Angels, sweeping the team with the best record in the Majors. This sets up a meeting with the Baltimore Orioles, who put the finishing touches on a sweep of their own, bouncing the AL Central winning Detroit Tigers from the first round of the postseason.

NLDS- Meanwhile in the National League Division series, it will be a rematch of the 2012 NLCS after the St Louis Cardinals bested the LA Dodgers 3 games to 1 in the first round while the San Francisco Giants also got by the Washington Nationals by a similar margin, including an 18 inning marathon in the nation's capital last weekend.

That series gets underway on Saturday night and will be televised on FOX and FOX Sports One.

NHL- It's here! It's here!

The NHL regular season got underway on Wednesday night with the Bruins taking on the Flyers at the TD Garden.



Reilly Smith got the scoring started in the first with a power play tally midway through the first. Through 2 periods, Rask turned aside 13 shots from Philadelphia while Steve Mason turned aside 19 of 20 shots from the Bruins, keeping the Flyers very much in the game.

Just four minutes into the 3rd, the Flyer managed to tie the contest up at 1-1 thanks to a Sean Coutourier goal. However, Chris Kelly would notch the go-ahead goal for the B's with just a minute fifty to go. The Bruins hang on to win by a 2-1 final in their home opener and will immediately travel to Detroit to take on the Red Wings for Thursday night's game.

Puck is scheduled to drop at 7:30 ET at Joe Louis Arena and the game will be televised on NESN.

Quickie Sports Chowdah Update- Strange Brew, Milwaukee Ruins Home Opener For Defending World Series Champion Red Sox; Bruins Staying Hot As Regular Season Winds Down

WEEI photo

RED SOX- Now that the weekend series is overI can honestly say the highlight of this weekend's series at Fenway was Friday's pregame ring ceremony.

The ceremony featured members of the 2013 World Series champion Red Sox being awarded their rings, which also included a 'Boston Strong' insignia on the side and a Bearded Band of Brothers on the interior of the ring. On hand for the ceremony were Pedro Martinez representing the 2004 World Series Champs, Mike Lowell representing the 2007 World Series team, Ty Law, Teddy Bruschi and Troy Brown representing the Patriots Superbowl Champion teams, Mark Recchi of the Bruins most recent Stanley Cup Championship team and Leon Powe of the 2008 Celtics NBA Championship team. A moment of silence was held before the ceremony to mark the deaths of Boston firefighters- Edward Walsh and Michael Kennedy- who were killed in a Back Bay brownstone fire last week.

The Red Sox came into the weekend winning two straight against AL East foe Baltimore and Friday's game where it was tied 2-2 headed into the 9th inning, but offseason acquisition Edward Mujica came on in the top of the inning with a disastrous outing, surrendering four runs to propel the Brewers to a 6-2 lead before Francisco Rodriguez came out in the bottom of the 9th to retire the Sox in order to go on to win by a 6-2 final.

On Saturday, the Red Sox fared no better when they lost in 11 innings to the Brewers by a 7-6 final. Sunday was their last chance to avoid the sweep and stop the bleeding with Lester on the mound. However, Yovani Gallardo and the Brewers pen would shut out the Red Sox [Boston would strand 13 runners on base- NANESB!] and Milwaukee would ruin opening weekend for the Red Sox by sweeping the series, going on to win by a 4-0 final on Sunday.

The Red Sox will hope to rebound on Monday night when they host the Texas Rangers- the first AL opponent they will see in Fenway this season. John Lackey [1-0; 3.00 ERA] will get the start against Tanner Scheppers [0-0; 15.75 ERA] and the game will be nationally televised on ESPN as well as locally on NESN. First pitch from Fenway is scheduled for 7:10 ET.




BOSTON BRUINS- After the Detroit Red Wings handed the Bruins their first regulation loss in nearly a month on Wednesday night, the Bruins would lose to the Maple Leafs in OT on Thursday night before heading home for their next-to-last home game of the regular season on Saturday.

The Bruins headed into Saturday's game hoping to clinch the top overall spot in the Eastern Conference and deliver a blow to the Flyer's playoff hopes. David Krejci got the Bruins on the board with just over 4 minutes remaining in the first, but that was a prelude to wild second half in which the Flyers would get on the board with just under five and a half minutes to go in the second thanks to a Wayne Simmonds power play goal. However, the B's would come right back with a goal from Milan Lucic 20 seconds later to take a 2-1 lead. But in the closing seconds of the 2nd stanza, the Flyers would once again pull even with Jay Rosehill beating Rask with 21 seconds remaining.

However, the Bruins would take the lead for good in the third when they scored three unanswered goals (from Boychuck, Lucic and Kelly) to make it a 5-2 game. Tukka Rask made 24 saves on 26 shots faced while Ray Emery stopped 37 of 41 shots faced [Kelly's tally was an empty-netter which didn't count against Emery- NANESB!].

The Bruins will hit the road once again, this time to take on the Minnesota Wild and Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday and Thursday before heading back to the Garden on Saturday for the final home game of the regular season where they'll face the Buffalo Sabres. Tuesday night's game is scheduled to get underway at 8:00 ET and will be televised on NESN.

NCAA HOOPS- As you can probably figure out by what's absent from my blog this time of year, I haven't been into bracketology for awhile. But with March Madness whittled down to the final two- 2012 Champion Kentucky and UConn. The Huskies bested the Florida Gators to advance to the Men's final while the Wildcats squeaked by the Wisconsin Badgers in a one point game during the Final Four. Tipoff from Dallas is scheduled for 9:10 ET and the game will be televised on CBS.

April Fool's Sports Chowdah Update- Sox Drop Season Opener to O's, Stop By White House for Customary Visit; Road Trip to Philly Wraps Up Hot March for Bruins; BC Advances to Frozen Four

RED SOX- The end of March heralded the beginning of the major league baseball season, with the Red Sox opening up on the road in Camden Yards. With Lester matched up against the O's Christ Tillman, the O's got on the board first when new acquisition Delmon Young grounded into a double play with nobody out and ex-Ranger Nelson Cruz at third in the bottom of the second.

The Red Sox managed to tie the game back up when Grady Sizemore- in only his second regular season MLB at-bat since July 2011- belted a solo homer to right field in the top of the 4th [His first at-bat was a single in the top of the 2nd- NANESB!].

However, Nelson Cruz would then lead off the top of the 7th inning with a solo homer off of Lester to give Baltimore the 2-1 lead. Tommy Hunter came out of the bullpen for the O's on the top of the 9th and led off the inning by hitting Will Middlebrooks with a pitch. Daniel Nava popped out the third for the first out of the inning but Pedroia followed that up with a single before Big Papi flew out to left field for the second out. With two away, John Farrell decided to have Jackie Bradley Jr come into the game as a pinch-hitter for Mike Napoli, but Bradley struck out to end the ballgame.

So the Red Sox open up the season with a 1-run loss in Baltimore. Not surprisingly, the Opening Day loss was taken in stride and kept in the proper perspective by some members of Red Sox Nation.

OMG! THE SOX ARE IN LAST PLACE....FARRELL'S GOTTA GO....RIGHT NOW!!!!- Obligatory #RedSoxNation Freakout. #RedSox #BOSvBAL #OpeningDay #MLB

— Fenway Nation (@Fenway_Nation) April 1, 2014

However, the Red Sox took Tuesday off to head down to the customary visit to the White House by the World Series champions [their third trip in 10 years and first since Barack Obama was elected- NANESB]. Gone were most of the beards that made the 2013 Red Sox look like a Hub version of Duck Dynasty, although some of the outfits stood out more than others.

THIS IS WHY JOHNNY GOMES WILL ALWAYS BE THE MAN! pic.twitter.com/M8iiXMPG4f

— Glenndrick Lamar (@GlennMTyson) April 1, 2014

The Red Sox will resume play tonight with John Lackey getting his first start of the season while Ubaldo Jiminez, who the Orioles signed to a 4-year, $50 million contract back in February. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 ET and the game will be televised on NESN.

BOSTON BRUINS- The only downside of March for the Boston Bruins is that it's come to an end. Heading into last weekend, they started a 4-game road trip that started with back-to-back games in Washington DC and Philadelphia. On Saturday afternoon, they managed to double up the Caps by a 4-2 final with Chad Johnson in net.



On Sunday afternoon, they headed up the I-95 to take on the Philadelphia Flyers. Just a little after five minutes into the game, Vinny Lecavalier got the Flyers on the board first before ex-Flyer Andrej Meszaros beat Steve Mason to make it a 1-1 game halfway through the first. However, Kimmo Timonen put the Flyers back on top with an even-strength goal in the last 45 seconds of the first period.

However, at 5:44 into the second period, Zdeno Chara would get a power play goal to even up the contest at 2-2 and Patrice Bergeron would get a go-ahead goal from a seemingly impossible angle to give Boston their first lead of the night at the 11:05 mark.

In the third, the Bruins had managed to hold off the Phillies throughout most of the period until inside the final 25 seconds when Vinny Lecalvalier once again broke through and tied the game at 3-3 in regulation with a few seconds left. Since nothing was decided in regulation and the 5 minutes of overtime, the contest then headed to a shootout with Bergeron scoring early for Boston and Claude Giroux for Philly. The Bruins' Reilly Smith finally broke through in the fifth round of the shootout, giving Boston the 4-3 win, although Philly does collect a much-needed point to keep their playoff hopes alive.

Tukka Rask turned aside 49 of the 52 shots he faced prior to the shootout while Steve Mason made 27 saves on 30 shots faced. The Bruins were 1 for 2 on their power play opportunities while Philly went 0-4 with the man advantage.

The Bruins road trip continues through Detroit on Wednesday night- this one will be nationally televised on NBC Sports Network. Puck is scheduled to drop at 8:00 ET between the Bruins and Red Wings.

BOSTON COLLEGE HOCKEY- The BC Eagles survived a late challenge from a very game UMass-Lowell in Worcester on Sunday to advance to the frozen Four. Eagles defenseman Ian McCoshen broke a 3-3 deadlock in the 3rd and goalie Thatcher Demko made 29 saves in the Boston College win.

BC will advance to the Frozen Four to take on Union, who eliminated the Eagles last season by beating them 5-1 in the first round of the NCAA Eastern Tournament regional. This would be the Union Dutchmen's second trip to the Frozen Four since the 2011-2012 season, where they lost to Ferris State by a 3-1 final in the semifinal. The game is scheduled for 5:00 PM ET at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on Thursday, April 10th.

Meanwhile, Minnesota bested St Cloud State in a 4-0 shutout to advance and face a resurgent North Dakota in Philly. The Fighting Sioux and Golden Gophers are scheduled to play at 7:30 PM ET and both the BC/Union Game and Minnesota/North Dakota games will be televised on ESPN.

Luck O'The Irish Sports Chowdah Update- C's Not So Lucky @ West Coast Tilt; B's Blow Late Lead, Get Past Philly; March Madness Brackets Busted Already

NHL- After a forgettable road trip and briefly being overtaken in the standings by the Ottawa Senators on Friday night, the Boston Bruins were hoping to snap a 4-game losing streak at home on St Patrick's Day.

For whatever reason, the day games have not been kind to the Bruins this season- last weekend's back to back losses to Washington and Pittsburgh were both matinees. And despite the promising start, Saturday's game seemed to be headed the same direction. Although the Bruins got out to the 2-0 lead in the first thanks to tallies by Chris Kelly and Tyler Seguin, the visiting Flyers were able to chip away at that lead, getting on the board thanks to a Matt Read power play goal in the 2nd and knotting the contest up at 2-2 after a Jakub Voracek goal late in the 3rd.

Nothing was resolved in OT, so the game headed for a shootout. It was starting to appear as though the shootout wouldn't resolve anything either, with both Thomas and Bryzgalov allowing goals from the first two shooters each of them faced. Listening to the shootout on the radio, I had the feeling that whoever stopped a shot first would win, and while Patrice Bergeron was able to get the puck past Bryzgalov for the 3rd goal of the shootout, Thomas was able to stop Danny Briere's attempt to seal the Bruins win.

Through regulation and OT, Thomas stopped 27 of 29 shots faced while Bryzgalov turned aside 31 of 33 shots faced. The Bruins went 0-2 on the power play while the Flyers were 1 for 4 with the man advantage on Saturday.

The win- coupled with an Ottawa loss to Toronto on Saturday night- puts the Bruins back into first place in the Northeastern division. As of Sunday night, the Senators and Bruins are separated by a point.

The Bruins will next host the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday night. So far, the B's have a clean sweep of the season series. The game will be televised on NESN and gets underway at 7:00 PM ET Monday.

OTHER BRUINS NEWS- The Bruins have signed LW Shawn Thornton to a two year extention. Thornton was slated to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season. THe extension is reportedly worth $1.1 million per season.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NHL- The St Louis Blues are the first NHL team in either conference to clinch a playoff berth this season. The Blues 3-1 win over Tampa Bay on Saturday sealed the deal. Currently the Blues have 100 points, which is 8 more than the next closest team in the Central Division- the Nashville Predators.

NCAA HOCKEY- Boston College won the Hockey East tournament with a 4-1 win over the Maine Black Bears on Saturday night. Eagles netminder Parker Milner made 41 saves against Maine and Eagles freshman Johnny Guardeau had two goals and an assist to garner the tournament MVP honors.

Saturday's win would be Boston College's 3rd consecutive Hockey East Championship. The Eagles draw The US Air Force Academy in the first round of the NCAA Men's Hockey tournament next week. The matchup will take place this upcoming Saturday afternoon at Worcester at 4:00 PM ET.

NCAA HOOPS- If you filled out your brackets last week, chances are you probably wanted to rip them up, throw them out and start over again after a couple of first-round upsets knocked out some heavily favored schools in March Madness.

Most noteworthy was the #15 seeded Norfolk State Spartans took down #2 seed Missouri by an 86-84 final. This was Norfolk State's first trip to the NCAA tournament, but their run came to an end when they were blown out by Florida by an 84-50 final.

Not to be outdone, another #15 seed took down a heavily favored program when Lehigh beat Duke 75-70 on Friday afternoon, although Xavier would end Lehigh's run with a 58-70 loss on Sunday night.

UConn, Harvard and Vermont would all qualify for the NCAA tourney [with the Catamounts getting by Lamar 59-71 to get into the tournament- NANESB!] but all three New England schools wouldn't advance past the first round. UConn lost to Iowa State, Vermont lost to North Carolina and Harvard would lose to Venderbilt.

While the UMass Minutemen had to settle for an invite to the NIT tournament, they have managed to advance to the quarterfinals after beating Mississippi State in OT in the first round and Seton Hall in the 2nd round. They will next face Drexel at 7:00 PM Tuesday night in a game that will be televised on ESPN.

NFL- NFL's free-agency began last week with the Buffalo Bills having signed free-agent defensive end Mario Williams. Williams was the Texans #1 draft pick in the 2006 NFL draft. The contract is reportedly for 6 years and could be worth upwards of $100 million.

OTHER NFL NEWS- The Washington Redskins have spurred talk that they have their sights on former Baylor QB and last year's Heisman winner Robert Griffin III after trading with the St Louis Rams to get the #2 overall pick in the upcoming NFL draft.

The Redskins get the second overall pick in exchange for giving St Louis three 1st round picks and a second round pick.

NBA- Although the second half of the season has been much kinder to the Celtics than it has been the Bruins, the C's are still running into some trouble on their West Coast road trip.

While they did manage back-to-back wins against the LA Clippers and Golden State Warriors, their western tilt started off with a 97-94 loss to the Lakers at the Staples Center and back-to-back losses against Sacramento and Denver.

The C's are still in 2nd place in the Atlantic Division, only a game and a half behind the 76ers. Their road trip continues on Monday- although it will be alot less western- when they travel to Atlanta to take on the 26-19 Hawks for the first time this season.

Monday night's game gets underway at 7:30 ET and will be televised on Comcast Sports New England.

Championship Weekend Sports Chowdah- Nevermore! Pats Superbowl Bound, Survive Late Ravens Drive; Penn State's Joe Paterno Passes Away At Age 85

NFL: Holy crap, what a day! Two Championship games coming down to the wire (and then some!) for the right to play in Superbowl XLVI. Neither one of them disappointed.

PATRIOTS: Unlike some of the AFC Championship games involving New England in the prior decade, today's affair in Foxborough was a taut, down-to-the wire affair.

For the first half, both teams seemed by be fostering a 'bend but don't break' mindset. However, for every score that New England managed to put up, Baltimore seemed to come right back. Stephen Gostkowski got the Pats on the board first with a chip-shot FG to make it 3-0. Baltimore would then tie the contest up at 3-3 early in the 2nd.

New England got the ball back on their own 25 and move the ball down the field in less than four minutes, with RB Ben Jarvus Green Ellis punching it in from the Ravens 7 before pointing to the MHK patch on his jersey.

The Ravens, however, would answer right back with some deep passes from QB Joe Flacco and passing the ball to Dennis Pitta for the TD to tie the contest up at 10-10.

New England would get another Gostkowski FG before the half to make it 13-10. However, in the second half, after the Patriots had to settle for another Gostkowski FG, Baltimore took the lead for the first time on the day late in the 3rd when Flacco found WR Torrey Smith on 3rd down and Smith scrambled for 29 yards to hit paydirt and the 17-16 lead.

New England managed to re-take the lead early in the 4th after Baltimore thwarted two previous attempts to punch the ball into the end zone from inside the Ravens 1-yard line. Finally, Tom Brady managed to break the plane to put New England up 23-17.

With just over 7 minutes to go in regulation, it appeared as though the Patriots could put the game away once and for all when LB Brandon Spikes picked off Joe Flacco and returned the ball to mid-field. However, on New England's first play after the INT, Brady went deep and after an impressive tip drill by Bernie Pollard in the end zone to keep the ball aloft, CB Jimmy Smith came up with the ball for Baltimore and returned it to the Ravens own 39, giving Baltimore excellent field position with 7:07 to go in the 4th. However, while the Ravens managed to get the ball as far as the Patriots 33 yard line, they turned it over thanks to an incompletion on 4th and 6 with 2:33 to go.

While the turnover on downs gave New England great field position, the Patriots weren't able to do anything more than go 3 and out, giving the Ravens the ball back on their own 21 with 1:44 in regulation while trailing 23-20.

In that short timeframe, Flacco and the Baltimore offense seemed to be able to move the ball at will, at times carefully painting the sideline to preserve the clock. This was accomplished with such apparent ease on the part of the Ravens that it looked as though they would score the go-ahead TD inside of a minute, let alone notch the game tying FG. This was made abundantly clear when the Ravens advanced as far as the Patriots 14 yard line with less than 30 seconds to go.

On 2nd and 1, Flacco found WR Lee Evans open in the end zone, only to have Patriots CB Sterling Moore rip the ball out of Evans' grip to bring up 3rd and 1 (also incomplete, but well short of the end zone) so with 15 seconds remaining, the Ravens went for the tie with what was considered a chip shot FG from the 32 yard line. Baltimore Kicker Billy Cundiff had already hit a pair from the 20 and 39 earlier on the game.

With all eyes fully expecting the contest to OT, Cundiff's kick inexplicably sailed wide left of the uprights, giving New England the ball back with 11 seconds. Brady simply took a knee and that was the ballgame.

Patriots survive a late scare from the Ravens to win 23-20 and the more superstitious among us think that the late Myra Kraft might've sent an opportune gust of wind to aid her husband's team in the final seconds of the 4th.

By his own admission in the postgame comments, Tom Brady 'sucked'- going 22 for 36 with 239 yards, two interceptions, one sack and that quarterback sneak on 4th an goal form the Ravens 1 yard line [is it REALLY a sneak when the whole world knows what's going to happen?- NANESB!]. Eerily enough, Joe Flacco also went 22 for 36 but had 306 yards, two TDs three sacks and an interception on Sunday. RB Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis had 15 carries for 68 yards and the TD on Sunday.

On the defensive side of the ball, Nose Tackle Vince Wilfork came up huge [come on now- you think that dude does ANYTHING small?- NANESB!], pressuring Flacco and coming away with 6 tackles- including a sack- on the day. No interceptions run back on Sunday, but hey! There's still one more game for New England.


Ten years after making his final playoff appearence for the New England Patriots [coming in for injured then-rookie Tom Brady of the 2nd Quarter of the 2001-02 AFC CHampionship game at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh to lead New England to a 24-17 win over the Steelers- NANESB!] for Patriots QB Drew Bledsoe was on hand to award the Lamar Hunt trophy to New England owner Robert Kraft.

OTHER PATRIOTS NEWS: Of some concern to the Patriots are apparent injuries to TE Rob Gronkowski and CB Kyle Arrington. Arrington left Sunday's game in the 2nd quarter with an apparent eye injury while Gronkowski departed in the 3rd to have an ankle injury examined, although he would later return to the sidelines.

Reports are circulating that Gronkowski will be cleared to play in time for the Superbowl.

NFC CHAMPIONSHIP: While the Patriots were celebrating after dodging OT and winning the AFC title, the game to determine who would face New England in Superbowl XLVI got underway from a rainy Candlestick Park in San Francisco between the NY Giants and the host 49ers.

After a first half in which Giants QB Eli Manning was starting to pick apart the 49ers defense, San Francisco would come out in the 2nd half and take the 14-10 lead on a 29 yard pass play from QB Alex Smith to WR Vernon Davis.

The Giants would then take a 17-14 lead after WR Kyle Williams had the Giants punt graze his leg, resulting in a live ball that the Giants return team pounced on- giving Manning and the offense a short field to work with at the 49ers 29 yard line. It appread as though San Francisco was set to dodge a bullet when when Eli Manning found WR Mario Manningham on 3rd and 15 and Manningham was able to run it in for the go ahead TD.

Williams would then return the subsequent Giants kickoff to mid-field, and the 49ers would get tantilizingly close to the Giants end zone before settling for a FG on 4th and 2 from the Giants 7 yard line.

That tied the contest up and unlike the earlier contest in Foxborough, MA, sent the NFC Championship game into OT. After each team had the ball and was seemingly unable to do anything with it, the Giants once again punted and once again, Kyle Williams turned it over, this time LB Jacquain Williams managed to punch the ball out and Giants reciever Devin Thomas fell on it at the 49ers 24 yard line. Although the 49ers stopped them on 3rd and goal from their own 8 (and the Giants got a 5 yard penalty afterwards), unlike earlier in the day, this crucial FG attempt was good, sending the Giants to Superbowl XLVI in Indianapolis and setting up a rematch of Superbowl XLII against the Patriots where the Giants last-minute drive put them on top 17-14.

Interestingly, this is the second consecutive NFC Championship game the Giants have appeared in that went to OT and the third NFC Title game in the last 5 years to go to OT.


NCAA FOOBALL: Former Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno passed away from complications from lung cancer at the Mount Nittany Medical Center in State College, PA over the weekend. The 85 year old Paterno played collegiate football at Brown University in the early 1950s and had been the Nittany Lions head coach from 1966 until November 2011 when he was forced to step down amid a child sex-abuse scandal involving his former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. While Paterno was accused of no wrongdoing himself, many accused the head coach of attempting to protect the Nittany Lions reputation by ignoring the more serious allegations against Sandusky.

On the field, Paterno is college football's all-time winningest coach, with a career record of 409-136-3 and going 24-12-1 in Bowl games. Joe Paterno is also the only coach to have won each of the 'major' Bowls- Rose, Orange, Fiesta and Sugar. In 2006, Paterno was named to the College Football Hall of Fame as a head coach.

In November, amid the media coverage of Penn State when the Sandusky scandal was breaking, Paterno's family reported that he was diagnosed with lung cancer. His health had been deteriorating in recent days and friends and family were called to his bedside.

Paterno leaves behind his wife Susan, five children and seventeen grandchildren.

RED SOX: The Boston Red Sox have dealt SS Marco Scutaro to the Colorado Rockies for pitcher Clayton Mortenson. Mortenson alternated between duty in the bullpen and as a starter for Colorado, going 2-4 with a 3.86 ERA last season.

The move gives the Rockies a veteran player in the middle infielder and frees up some money for Boston to pursue free agent starting pitcher Roy Oswalt or Outfielder Cody Ross, both of whom the organization has reportedly been aggressively courting in the past couple of days.


OTHER RED SOX NEWS: The Red Sox and Reliever Daniel Bard have avoided arbitration and reached an agreement to terms on a 1-year contract over the weekend.

ELSEWHERE IN MLB: The Texas Rangers have signed highly sought-after Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish to a 6 year contract thats worth a guaranteed $56 million.

Darvish has played for the Nippon-Ham Fighters since 2005 and has also appeared in the World Baseball Classic twice for Team Japan, closing out the final inning of the 2009 Championship game against South Korea to help Japan win it's second WBC tournament.

Last season, Darvish went 18-6 with an ERA of 1.44 for the Ham-Fighters of the Japanese Pacific League.



BRUINS: After a 3-2 loss in the dying sceonds of OT at home against the NY Rangers, braking a 7-game drought where the blueshirts went scoreless on the power play. Less than 24 hours later, the Bruins were heading for Philly for a Sunday afternoon game that was taking plast the same time as the AFC Championship match.

So while all eyes were seeminlgy elsewhere, there was plenty of this going on early in Philadelphia:



When all was said and done, 66 penalty minutes were assesed in Sunday's game [altho' some of them for more mundane infractions like too many men on the ice- NANESB!]/ The Bruins got out to the quick 1-0 lead 50 seconds in on a Patrice Bergeron goal while Maxime Talbot tied things up at 1 not quite 90 seconds later.

Tyler Seguin would get a PP goal at the 9 minute mark while Milan Lucic would get the puck past Bryzgalov some three and a half minutes later to make it 3-1 Boston.


Unlike the last time these two teams met at Philly, The Flyers weren't content to just roll over and die. The second period was all Philly, with them outshooting the Bruins 15-6 and Scott Hartnell getting the natural hat trick to put Philly up 4-3.

David Krejci would knot the contest up at 4-4 early in the 3rd while Greg Campbell would put the Bruins back on top a few minutes later to make it 5-4. However, Maxime Talbot would strike again and once again knot things up, this time at 5-5.

After a scoreless OT in which the B's were unable to take advantage of a holding penalty assessed to Kimmo Timonenen 3:20 in, the game went to a shootout where Tyler Seguin would tally the winning goal and Tim Thomas made the save on Wayne Simmonds to give Boston the 6-5 shootout win while everybody else was watching the Pats and Ravens, apparently [guilty!- NANESB!].

So once again, Boston is credited with 6 goals on the Flyers, but unlike their last meeting at the Wells Fargo Center, the Bruins needed every last one of them. Tim Thomas stopped 33 of 38 shots faced in regulation and OT while Ilya Bryzgalov stopped 32 of 37 faced.

From there, the Bruins will travel to Washington D.C. where they will face the Capitals in their final game before the All-Star Break. This will actually be the first meeting between the two teams this season. The puck will drop at 7PM ET and the game will be televised on NESN.



OTHER BRUINS NEWS: With the Bruins in Washington D.C., the team was scheduled to visit the White House and meet with President Obama on Monday, as is customary for championship teams to do.

However, Tim Thomas has declined to join the team on the visit citing political differences with President Obama. Thomas is staunchly conservative and has donated to conservative candidates and political action committees in 2010 and wears a variation of the Gadsden Flag [an unofficial symbol of the Tea Party] on his mask.

Thomas is not the first outspoken conservative to have played for a championship team in Boston. Shortly after winning the 2004 World Series, starting pitcher Curt Schilling threw his support behind President George W Bush who was running for re-election against Massachusetts Senator John Kerry at the time. Other players for the Bruins, Red Sox or Patriots have hinted at more conservative or libertarian political views, but otherwise held their political leanings pretty close to the vest while playing in dark-blue Massachusetts.

Thomas is one of two Americans on the current Bruins roster (Joe Corvo being the other). The overwhelming majority of players hail from Canada.

On a side note, knowing Bay State liberals like I do, I'm sure it will only be a matter of time before somebody starts digging up some dirt about Thomas [allegations of cheating on his wife, taking steroids, puppy-drowning and so on- NANESB!] now that he's dared to slight their god with the 44% approval rating.

OTHER NHL NEWS: Edmonton Oilers LW Taylor hall is back on the ice after suffering a rather gruesome injury where his face was acceidentally stepped on by the skate of teammate Corey Potter during warm-ups before a game agaist the Columbus Blue Jackets last week.

The gash required 30 stitches and a specially insulated helmet that wouldn't rub against or aggravate the stitches as well as a tinted visor, since one of his eyes is almost swolen shut.

Hall has 15 goals and 16 assists in 37 games played this season. Both Hall and the Bruins' Tyler Segiun were the top two picks in the 2010 NHL Entry draft.

NBA: After being held to their lowest total all season in Firday night's 71-79 home loss against the Phoenix Suns, the Boston Celtics hit the road for a quick 1-game trip down to Washington D.C. to take on the woeful Wizards on Sunday in a contest that got even LESS attention than the Bruins and Flyers.

Paul Pierce carried the C's with 34 points, 8 rebounds and 10 assists for the Celtics in their 100-94 win over the Wizards, who are now 2-14.

Boston will next take on Orlando Monday and Thursday night in a home and away series. Monday Night's game will tip off at the Garden and be televised on Comcast sports New England and NBA-TV. Thursday night's road game will get underway at 8PM ET and be televised nationally on TNT.

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

Getty Images

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.

Mile High Sports Chowdah Update- Cure For Tebowmania Found; Parlez Vous Perdant? B's Knock off Habs for 5th Straight Win; UL-Lafayette all the Rage

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.

Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

For Monday night's game, the Bruins returned to the Garden to face Original 6 archrival Montreal. Over the weekend, the Canadiens fired head coach Jacques Martin and replaced him with interim head coach Randy Cunneyworth. Even though its on an interim basis, the decision to hire a coach who doesn't speak French has met with some backlash from some sectors in Quebec, including the provincial Minister of Culture.

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.

TOM REEL/©2011 San Antonio Express-News

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.

Sports Chowdah Update- Cole Burner; Anybody Else Feel A Draft?

Christopher Pasatieri/Getty Images

MLB: After stumbling in the first two games, the Red Sox were able to salvage Game 3 against the Phillies and even managed to literally knock Philly starter Cole Hamels out of the game. After a scoreless duel with Jon Lester, Philly manager Charlie Manuel made the decision to pull Hamels after the starter took an Adrian Gonzalez line-drive off of his glove hand in the top of the 4th. Hamels reportedly had a large bruise to show for it, but Manuel wasn't going to take any chances with the starter.

The Red Sox managed to break the scoreless deadlock with a pair of RBI singles- one off the bat of Drew Sutton and the other from Jacoby Ellsbury- off of David Herndon in the top of the 5th. This was followed up by two solo homers from Jason Varitek and one from Dustin Pedroia.

Jon Lester came up pretty big against a potent Philly offense, allowing two hits and two walks and striking out five in 7 shutout innings of work. After Bobby Jenks scuffled in his second game back since returning from the DL, giving up a 2-run homer off the bat of Phillies 1B Ryan Howard, Papelbon came in for a 2-out save in the bottom of the 9th to secure the 5-2 win for Boston.

From there, the BoSox will travel to the Lone Star state for their second-ever sojourn to Houston. Tim Wakefield (4-3; 4.54 ERA) gets the start against Astros righty Bud Norris (4-6; 3.36 ERA) on Friday night.

NBA: The Celtics season has been over for awhile, and with a lockout underway the 2011-2012 season is in doubt as well. That's not to say the C's haven't been wheeling and dealing, however. In a draft day trade with the New Jersey Nets, the Celtics traded for Purdue's JaJuan Johnson in exchange for Providence's Marshon Brooks and a 2nd round pick in the 2014 draft.


NHL: The 2011 NHL draft last week officially closed the book on the 2009 Phil Kessel trade with the selection of OHL defenseman Dougie Hamilton. Hamilton was the 9th overall selection in the NHL draft- like last year's draft, the Toronto Maple Leafs had agreed to trade their 1st round draft pick to Boston in exchange for Kessel.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NHL: Paul Kariya, the Anaheim Ducks first-ever draft pick who started out in 1993, announced his retirement this week.

*It was made official at the draft when the former Atlanta Thrashers drafted OHL Center Mark Scheifele in the first round- the new NHL franchise in Winnipeg will resurrect the Jets name.

Just a bit of idle speculation on my part, but with Carolina, Florida, Washington and Tampa Bay having to travel to Manitoba several times a year to play a 'divisional opponent', realignment seems inevitable. What would probably make the most sense geographically is to have Nashville take the Thrasher's place and have them take Nashville's place in the Central but its possible for the league to move a team from the Northwestern division into Nashville's place in order to arrange the Jets playing the Oilers, Flames and Canucks on a more regular basis.

UPDATE: With not even the first full day of free agency in the NHL gone, the Philadelphia Flyers have announced a 1 year deal with Jaromir Jagr and a five year deal with former Penguins forward Maxime Talbot.

Mother's Milk Sports Chowdah Update- B's Sweep Philly; C's Feeling the Heat; Crawford Notches Another Walk-off Win

Seems as though I missed all the excitement vis a vis Terry Francona and Joe West as well as Rajon Rondo's gritty performance in Game 3- well....I caught some of it on the radio, but that doesn't always effectively convey the moment.

AP Photo

NBA: After a game 2 in the Garden on Saturday that saw Rajon Rondo playing for 38 minutes with a dislocated elbow and was capped off with a 97-81 win against the Miami Heat, the series continued on Monday night.

Alas, while the C's led for much of the game there was no rallying point like Rondo's return in Game 3. With the clock counting down the final seconds of regulation and the game tied 86-86, Paul Perce attempted a jumper that ended up rimming out and forcing a rather anticlimatic overtime in which the Heat would go on a 12-4 run and win by the final of 98-90, putting the Celtics in a 3-1 hole [not the first time a Boston team has been in a 3-1 hole in the postseason, mind you, but an uphill climb nonetheless- NANESB!].

Rajon Rondo- unquestionably the hero of Game 3, was on the floor for 38 minutes and had 10 points, 2 rebounds and 5 assists. Paul Pierce led in scoring with 27 points, followed by Ray Allen with 17. For the Heat, LeBron James had 35 points on the night followed by Dwayne Wade with 28 and Chris Bosh with 20.

Game 5- which is do or die for Boston- is set to take place Wednesday night at Miami starting at 7PM ET, 4PM Pacific and will be broadcast on TNT.

OTHER NBA NEWS: Elsewhere, the Los Angeles Lakers season ended abruptly after being swept in 4 games by the Dallas Mavericks. Even with the C's one game away from elimination, I still find myself smiling a little bit typing that above sentence.

NHL: Speaking of 4-game sweeps, the Bruins ensured that there wouldn't be a repeat of last year's epic collapse by eliminating the Philadelphia Flyers to advance to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 1992.

Boston got on the board late in the first with a power play goal from Milan Lucic and Philly would come right back to tie it in the 2nd with an even strength goal from Kris Versteeg.

Boston would re-take the lead early in the 3rd on a Johnny Boychuck tally, but given what happened against the Flyers last year, one could be forgiven for not being convinced that a 1-goal lead late in the 3rd period was sufficient insurance. However, Lucic was able to provide some of that insurance when he managed to find the back of the net at the 15 minute mark. This was followed up by empty netters from Brad Marchand and Daniel Paille to seal the game by a 5-1 final for the Bruins, and ending the Flyers season.

Tim Thomas stopped 22 of 23 shots faced (it seemed like the overwhelming majority of them came midway through the 3rd period) while Philly's Sergei Bobrovski stopped 22 of 25 faced.

The win means that the Bruins will face the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference finals. Tampa is coming off their own 4-game sweep of the underwhelming Washington Capitols. Game 1 won't get underway until Saturday evening, with both (presumably well-rested) teams facing off at the Garden starting at 8PM ET.

OTHER BRUINS NEWS: Patrice Bergeron left Game 4 with what was diagnosed a 'mild' concussion after a hit from Claude Grioux and is expected to miss at least two games. Bergeron, who has a history of concussions, will be replaced by 1st round draft pick Tyler Seguin in the meantime.


RED SOX: After splitting the home series against the Angels and dropping the 1st game to Minnesota on Friday night, the Red Sox finished up their homestand with a 3-game win streak Monday night.

Monday night's game was a little closer than I would've liked and not exactly problem free, given that Papelbon blew his a save opportunity for the 1st time this season and the Sox stranded 11 baserunners.

Adrian Gonzalez had an RBI single, driving in Varitek to make it a 1-0 game and the Sox would tenuously cling to the lead heading into the top of the 8th. With Alfredo Aceves struggling, Jonathan Papelbon came on for a 4-out save, but gave up an RBI single to Jason Kubel, driving in the speedy Denard Span to tie the game at 1-1.

Hideki Okajima gave up two hits in two shaky but scoreless innings of work for the Sox, but Jim Hoey would come on and give up an RBI single to Carl Crawford, driving in pinch-runner Jose Iglesias, giving the struggling outfielder his second walk-off hit in nearly a week.

Boston will next travel to Toronto for a brief 2-game series before travelling to the Bronx to take on the Yankees over the weekend.

Ding Dong Bin Laden's Freakin' DEAD Sports Chowdah Update- Weaver Unraveled @ Fenway; Heat Scorch C's in Game 1; B's Shipping Up to Boston w/ 2-0 Lead

MLB: After a fairly unimpressive continuation of their West Coast road trip where they dropped 2 out of 3 to the Orioles, the Red Sox made their way back to Fenway on Friday to start off an 11-game homestand. That didn't go too well, either- although struggling OF Carl Crawford got his 3rd RBI of the season at Fenway (7th overall) to break a 2-2 deadlock in the bottom of the 9th for a 3-2 Boston win.

AP Photo

On Monday, the Red Sox continued their homestand against one of the few teams they had early success against this season as they played host to the Angels.

However, despite the 4 game sweep on the Angels on the road the Red Sox had yet to face Jered Weaver, who was coming into Monday night's game undefeated in his 6 starts and with a 0.99 ERA.

The Angels took the 2-1 lead in the top of the 5th inning off of Clay Bluccholz but after a 1-out double from the Carl Crawford [should I use the adejctive 'struggling' anymore?- NANESB!] and walking Varitek, Jacoby Ellsbury hit into a fielder's choice ('Tek was out at second). With 2 away, Ellsbury managed to steal second while 2B Dustin Pedroia was fouling pitch after pitch from Weaver off in a tenacious 13-pitch at bat that culminated in a 2-RBI single to put the Red Sox up for good.

Adrian Gonzalez added some considerable insurance with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 7th with a bases-clearing double, followed by Youk bringing in Gonzalez with another RBI double and Big Papi cranking one into the Monster seats to make it 9-2 Boston. The Angels would get a couple of runs back in the top of the 8th and 9th, but Hideki Okajima would close things out and Boston wins by a final of 9-5.

Tonight's matchup will feature Jon Lester (3-1; 2.52 ERA) getting the start against Dan Haren (4-1; 1.23 ERA). First pitch will be at 7:10 ET on NESN.

NHL: After winning game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals by a 7-3 final, the Bruins would need overtime for the 4th time in this year's playoffs.

Philly took the early 2-0 lead on two goals from James Van Riemsdyk about nine minutes apart in the first before the Bruins would tie it up on goals from Chris Kelly and Brad Marchand to close out the first at 2-2.

And that was all the scoring there was in regulation, believe it or not. Philly netminder Brian Boucher would leave halfway through the second with some sort of injury and have Sergei Bobrovsky fill in for him between the pipes until returning in the 3rd period- Bobrovsky would stop all 6 shots faced.

Tim Thomas, on the other hand, stayed in net throughout the entire game stopping 52 out of 54 shots faced, including all 46 shots sent his way by the Flyers after allowing goal #2 in the first.

David Krejci would break the deadlock 6 minutes into the OT, getting one past Boucher even though the lineman signalled 'no goal' and play continued for another 18 seconds. The play was then reviewed by video and Kejci's shot was ruled a goal.

This puts Boston ahead 2 games to none with the series heading back to Boston on Wednesday ngiht. As glad as I am they're up, it's still pretty early to bust out the champagne and start drunkenly slurring 'Na na na na Hey hey hey.....good byyye!' in light of what happened in last year's eastern conference finals and- more recently- the fact that Montreal started off the last series with back to back wins on the road.

The series resumes on Wed, May 4 at the garden at 7PM ET. The game will be televised on the VS network.

Mike Ehrmann/Getty

NBA: With a whole week off before facing their next opponent, it probably wouldn't be too surprising that there would be some rust as the Celtics took on the Miami Heat.

Dwayne Wade had a 38 point night for Miami while Guard James Jones came off the bench for 25 points on Sunday afternoon's game.

Ray Allen led the Celtics scoring with 25 points in the 99-90 loss to Miami in Sunday's game- Paul Pierce had 19- everybody else was held to single digits.

Game 2 will get underway Tuesday Night in Miami at 7PM ET and will be televised on TNT.

NFL: Looks like the on-again off-again NFL lockout is back on again less than a week after a federal judge in Minnesota had it overturned. An appeals court in St. Louis had issued a temporary ruling in the NFL's favor. The 3-judge panel had ruled 2-1 in favor of the league pending a June 3 hearing.

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS: The Patriots selcted Colorado University tackle Nate Solder with their first round pick of the 2011 draft. Virginia's Ras-I Dowling at cornerback and Cal RB Shane Vereen picked up in the 2nd round. Of course, there's the whole question of whether or not there's going to be a 2011 season for the Class of 2011, let alone how much playing time they'll get...



OTHER PATRIOTS NEWS: The Daughter of former BC/Patriots QB Doug Flutie has managed to land a spot on the 2011 New England Patriots cheerleading squad (although again- with the lockout looming, whether or not there's a 2011 season will depend on the labor situation).

Flutie, a Miss Massachusetts finalist as well, is currently a resident of Natick, MA



Alexa and the other finalists will be introduced at an event in Foxbourogh on Tuesday night.