Playoffs, College, NFL...

I'm going to have to break this one down... A lot's happened in this past week.

Starting with MLB playoffs... The Yankees swept the Twins (shocker) to advance to American League Championship where they will be playing the Texas Rangers, who are making their first appearance in the ALCS. Sorry Rays, maybe next year. The Giants beat out the Braves (Thank goodness Bay Area fans have them, their 49er's are still winless!) The Giants will take on the Phillies... yeah, yeah, yeah, Roy Halladay with his no hitter, and Cole Hamels with his full game shut out. It's no surprise, they've got the best pitching in baseball. Who's going to make it to the series? If I had to predict it, I'd say it's going to be an exact replay of last year's world series, and we know who took that one home.

In college football news, Alabama has been knocked off their high horse by the South Carolina Gamecocks. They lost their number one ranking and are now at #8. Things don't look like their getting better either, star receiver, Julio Jones broke his hand and may not be able to play to his best ability for awhile. The Ohio State University has been bumped up to number one. The Buckeyes are currently undefeated and will play the Wisconsin Badgers on Saturday. One of the great college rivalries was played on Saturday. The Florida State Seminoles took on the Miami Hurricanes... Or they would have, had the Hurricanes actually showed up. This was the most awful display of Miami Hurricane football I have seen in a while. Jimbo Fisher outcoached Randy Shannon for the W on his birthday. Christian Ponder looked decent throwing for 173 yards, 2 touchdowns and one INT. Jacory Harris looked like, well, he looked like Jacory Harris. He went 19 for 47, 225 yards and no touchdowns. Ray Lewis needs to take a trip down to his old alma mater and have a talk with the Hurricanes. I do however need to make a shout out to Andrew Datko, #67, Offensive Tackle for the Seminoles, great game!

In his first game out of the hospital after suffering a heart attack, Mike Dantonio, coach of the Michigan State Spartans took on Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines. Both of these great lakes state teams were undefeated heading into Saturday's game in Ann Arbor. Denard Robinson, Heisman hopeful out of Deerfield Beach, Florida, did not give a Heisman-worthy performance facing his foes. Robinson went 17 for 29, 215 yards, 1 touchdown and 3 interceptions. The Wolverines lost 34-17.

The University of Central Florida gave a stellar performance last Wednesday night against the University of Alabama... Birmingham (cough cough). The Knights won 42-7. Rob Calabrese and Jeffrey Godfrey shared time under center and Ronnie Weaver rushed for 2 touchdowns. The Knights defense shined against UAB's abysmal offense.

Moving on the the NFL, the Detroit Lions have won a game! That's right, the Lions won. Not only did they win, they scored a league-high 44 points against the Rams. Rookie, Max Hall led the Arizona Cardinals to an upset over the reigning champion Saints. The Indianapolis Colts handed the KC Chiefs their first loss of the season and the 49er's remain winless, after almost beating the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday night. The bye-week did not do the Dallas Cowboys any good, I think it slowed the momentum of their week 3 win against the Texans. The Cowboys lost to the Titans on Sunday. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are 3-1 under Raheem Morris and QB Josh Freeman after beating the Bengals with a last minute field goal. Let's hope this QB can retain his good image in a league where QBs are diminishing their reputations daily... This brings me to Brett Favre. Allegedly, while playing with the Jets, Favre fell for former FSU hottie, Jenn Sterger. He showed his affection by sending inappropriate texts, pictures and voicemails. May I also remind you that Brett is married, and this behavior, if true, is disgusting. The NFL is currently investigating this story further.

Despite all of the anticipation and controversy surrounding this past Monday's game between the Vikings and Jets, the first half was just plain old boring(the rain might have had something to do with it). Both teams failed to score a touchdown, but Nick Folk, for the Jets had quite the game, making 3 field goals in the first half to make the score 9-0. After halftime, the game started to pick up the pace. Randy Moss had his first touchdown as a Viking (well, this time around anyway), and the Jets scored 2 more field goals in the third quarter. 15-7 was the score. At the start of the fourth Brett threw a TD to Percy Harvin. They went for 2 points but didn't get it, so 15-13, it's getting good. Shonn Green scored the Jets' first touchdown and then Percy Harvin scored again. 22-20. Brett took the field to try to lead his team to victory. CHOKE! His pass, intended for Visanthe Shiancoe was intercepted by Dwight Lowery, who ran it back for another Jet TD. 29-20. Brett, again takes the field, hoping for a miracle. In the last Viking's drive of the game Favre only made 2 complete passes, one to Moss, one to Shiancoe. The clock ran out and the Minnesota Vikings claim the third spot in the NFC North at 1-3. They play the 1-3 Cowboys on Sunday. It'll be interesting to see the game between these one-win teams who are so often (now) compared to one another. The Jets sit atop the AFC East, with the Patriots following close behind.

The NBA preseason continues... More will come once the season actually starts. And as for the NHL, I really only like it when it gets close to the postseason.

That's it for now, Sports Truly

Special Edition: MNF 10/04/10

About 14 million viewers tuned into ESPN last Monday to watch the AFC East showdown between the Dolphins and Patriots. The first half was relatively boring and uneventful. The score going into halftime was 7-6 in favor of the Dolphins. Chad Henne threw a TD pass to Davonne Bess, an undrafted free agent, who played college ball at Hawaii. Tom Brady, Wes Welker and Randy Moss were left touchdown-less in the first 2 quarters, with Stephen Gostkowski kicking 2 field goals to give the Pats their 6 points.

Enter the third quarter. Brandon Tate runs for 103 yards to return the kickoff for a touchdown. Miami gets the ball back and goes 3 and out, they are forced to punt. Patrick Chung blocks the punt and BenJarvus Green-Ellis (say that name 5 times fast) ran 12 yards for another TD. The score is now 20-7. The Dolphins quickly answered with another touchdown. 20-14. Former Jet and Hard Knocks alum, Danny Woodhead caught a pass from number 12 to make the score 27-14. Miami's driving... Let's go to the fourth.

Chad Henne sloppily leads his team into field goal range. Dan Carpenter's kick is... BLOCKED! Patrick Chung with another block on special teams. The ball is recovered by Patriot, Kyle Arrington and he runs it in for a touchdown. 34-14. Nine minutes left in the game and the Dolphins are looking for the slightest glimmer of hope. They want to score. They want to win this game. They want to... Chad Henne is picked off for the third time and Patrick Chung gets a pick-6. Just to tally that up, that is 1 blocked punt, 1 blocked field goal, and a pick-6 for this second year player out of Oregon. 41-14. Tony Sparano puts Tyler Thigpen in for the Dolphins' last drive. He throws a pass intended for Hartline and he is picked off by safety, Jarrad Page. Tom Brady takes a knee for the last few drives and back-up Brian Hoyer finishes the game with a kneel. Tom Brady becomes the fastest starting QB in the Super Bowl era to reach 100 wins, and the Patriots tie the Jets for the lead in the AFC East.

Miami head coach, Tony Sparano later went on to say that the Dolphins' performance was "a mess and embarrassing." And less than 12 hours after their loss, the Dolphins let go of their special teams coordinator, John Bonamego. On another note, the notoriously apathetic, Bill Belichick was seen smiling on the sidelines after his special teams' stellar performance.

On Wednesday morning Randy Moss was traded to the Minnesota Vikings for a third round pick in next year's draft. It later came out that he and quarterback, Tom Brady, had a little "scuffle" in the locker room after the game. Brady told Moss to shave his face, and Moss told Brady that his hair made him look like a girl. Well, we saw how that turned out.

Both teams are coming off of their bye-week and the Dolphins will face the Packers in Green Bay, while the Patriots face the 4-1 Ravens at home on Sunday. Bill Belichick's record when coming off the bye is 14-4, and the Pats have won 12 of their last 13 "after-bye" games.

Sports Truly

Beginning of October... Every Sports Lover's Dream

This blog and all of my blogs are dedicated to my family, especially to my pop pop, who took me to a few games. You were always there for me and I love you forever.

Not only did this weekend bring some exciting professional and college football games but it also brought the end of the regular baseball season, MLB playoff time and the start of the NBA pre-season.

Saturday was chock-full o’ some great college games, with match-ups like Miami and Clemson, Florida and Alabama, Texas and Oklahoma. I guess it’s only appropriate to start this with the team who’s at the top of the rankings and that would be none other than Alabama’s Crimson Tide who ran all over the Gators this weekend. After starting their early demolition of Florida with a field goal the Gators came right back up the field and looked like they might score a touchdown. Instead of going for the tie on 4^th and goal, John Brantley threw an interception and let’s just say it only got worse for the Gators after that. Florida was unable to score a touchdown which made the final score 31-6. This brings Nick Saban’s record at Bama to 38-8.

The Miami Hurricanes traveled to South Carolina to face the Clemson Tigers on Saturday.  This ACC battle was a key victory for the Hurricanes who are now 3-1 (1-0 in the ACC). Jacory Harris continues to have highs and lows in each game, he’s consistently inconsistent. He threw for 205 yards, 4 touchdowns and 2 interceptions and only completed 13 passes out of 33, (that’s about 39%).  He did however look better than Clemson’s QB Kyle Parker, who threw 3 interceptions and zero touchdowns. Leonard Hankerson, out of St. Thomas Aquinas, came up big in this game, catching 7 times for 147 yards (more than 71% of Miami’s total receiving yards) and 3 of Harris’ TDs. Miami’s Matt Bosher sealed the deal with a 29-yard field goal with 2:40 left in the fourth.

The Red River Rivalry, the annual game between Texas and Oklahoma was played in Oklahoma on Saturday. Sam Bradford’ replacement, Landry Jones, looked good throwing for 2 touchdowns and 236 yards. Colt McCoy’s replacement, Garrett Gilbert, continues to struggle leading the Longhorn offense. Oklahoma won this meeting, making the all time Red River record 59-41 in favor of the Longhorns.

Sunday brought the last games of regular season baseball. The Tampa Bay Rays beat Kansas City to clinch the AL East and the best record in the American League. The Yankees clinched the wild card spot to make the playoffs for the 49^th time. The Texas Rangers clinched the AL West and the Minnesota Twins clinched the AL Central. The Philadelphia Phillies clinched the NL East for the 4th straight year. The Reds clinched the NL Central and the San Francisco Giants beat the Padres to clinch the NL West. The Braves clinched the wild card and will start their playoff run against the Giants on Thursday. The Reds will travel to Philly on Thursday as well. Both AL games are on Wednesday.

NFL Sunday was full of upsets, heartbreaking losses and sloppy wins. After being up 14-0, the 49ers let the Falcons come all the way back to 14-13. On the drive to go up, Matt Ryan threw an interception to the 49ers’ Nate Clements. I thought the game was over at that point. The Falcons’ Roddy White thought differently and forced a fumble in order for the Falcons winning drive to stay alive. Matt Bryant saved the day for the second week in a row, kicking a 43-yard field goal with 2 seconds left on the clock.

The always-good Colts lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars, who failed to score a touchdown last week against the Eagles. Peyton Manning had his 3^rd 300+ yard game on Sunday but that wasn’t enough to the Jags. This game was close the entire time. Each score was answered with another score. In the middle of the fourth quarter Joseph Addai ran for a touchdown to bring the score to 21-21. Maurice Jones-Drew answered that with an 8 yard touchdown making it 28-21. Peyton Manning, no stranger to having to perform under pressure led his team down the field and threw a TD to Austin Collie with 48 seconds left. At that point, I think Peyton, along with the entire Colt’s team thought they were headed for over-time. Not so fast. The desperate Jaguars sloppily made it to the Colts’ 41 yard-line. With 5 seconds left Jaguars kicker, Josh Scobee kicked the field goal of his life. It flew 59 yards before crossing the uprights. Both of these AFC South teams are 2-2.

Donovan McNabb made his return to Philly on Sunday, in a Redskins jersey. Number 5 was welcomed with a standing ovation, then the game started and the cheers quickly turned to jeers. It was neither team’s best game. Michael Vick left the game in the first quarter with rib and chest injuries. Had he not been injured, this game probably would have looked a whole lot different. Donovan McNabb’s lackluster performance was enough to get him the W, and the revenge on his old team and his old coach, Andy Reid. The final was 17-12, with the Skins scoring all their points in the first half and the Eagles relying on David Akers to score half of their points. The Eagles scored a touchdown in the fourth but failed to complete the 2 point conversion that would have cut the Redskins’ lead to 3 points. I like Donovan and I’m glad he got the victory over the Eagles. These teams are 2-2 now as well.

Staying with the NFC East, the Giants beat the then 3-0 Bears on Sunday Night Football. The rain in New York was quite obvious; neither team seemed to be able to hold on to the ball. The first half was reminiscent of that Steelers-Dolphins game a few years ago (The Steelers won 3-0 in horrible weather in Miami).  At the end the Giants came up on top 17-3 and they also sacked Jay Cutler nine times (and Caleb Hanie once). Lovie Smith had to send out 2 back up QBs after Jay Cutler sustained a concussion. Todd Collins was sent to the sidelines after a blindside hit from LB Michael Boley. Caleb Hanie took the field at the end of the fourth quarter to finish the game.

Just a few more notes from Sunday: Joe Flacco and the Ravens beat their AFC North rivals, the Steelers in a game that came down to the very end. Cincinnati lost to the Browns (WHAT?????) and Detroit almost won for the fourth time this season. The Kansas City Chiefs remain the only undefeated team at 3-0, and 20 teams have lost 2 or more games.