Author: Staff (Page 67 of 144)

      Can the Kansas City Chiefs keep it going?

      October 27, 2013 /

      The Kansas City Chiefs had the top pick in the latest NFL draft, and now they’re sitting at 7-0 with everyone calling Andy Reid a genius. But are they really that good, and does this make them a good bet in Vegas?

      Andy Reid deserves a ton of credit for turning around this team. Everything revolves around the defense, where the Chiefs already had a lot of talent. They play very aggressive defense and they’v been causing a ton of turnovers. With the defense being the core, Reid went out and got Alex Smith to fit into his natural role as a game manager. The Chiefs love to run the ball, and then they don’t ask Smith to take any chances. This conservative approach has been critical to their success so far this season.

      Still, is this sustainable? With an excellent defense they of course will be a contender all season long. But will they keep getting the critical turnovers? There’s always some luck associated with that. The Chiefs have had the good fortune of playing some terrible football teams. Also, they’ve faced a string of backup quarterbacks in Case Keenum and Ryan Fitzpatrick, and this week they get Jason Campbell. Later this year reality may set in as they will face Andrew Luck, Peyton Manning twice, Philip Rivers twice and RG3.

      Then we have the issue of the offense. How long can they ride Alex Smith and his low yards per attempt numbers?

      If you look at the NFL lines this week you’ll see the Chiefs as a 7.5 favorite over the Cleveland Browns. This game is interesting for a number of reasons. With Campbell starting, it’s really impossible to predict what we’ll see with the Cleveland offense. If he’s rusty or plays like he did last year, the Chiefs will have another win to celebrate. But if he can be a competent quarterback like the guy who was 4-2 in 2011 with the Raiders before getting hurt, then the Browns be come a formidable opponent.

      The Browns do have an aggressive defense, and DC Ray Horton has promised to let them get more aggressive this week now that they’re healthy. And while he didn’t say it, Alex Smith is no Aaron Rodgers. The Browns will likely stack the box and blitz often in order to stuff the running game and dare Smith to throw passes downfield.

      So be careful of this game. With the large spread this one seems like a coin flip that will turn on the unpredictable play of Jason Campbell. And if you’re in a n elimination pool, then this is a classic trap game. It should be a fun one to watch.

      NFL

      Upset Saturday

      October 12, 2013 /

      We’re finally getting some upsets to shake up college football. #5 Stanford traveled to Utah and was stunned by the Utes who made an impressive goal line stand at the end of the game for a final score of 27-21. Check out the parody video above that makes fun of Stanford fans.

      #25 Missouri improved to 6-0 with an upset of #7 Georgia on the road. Georgia had a ton of injuries but losses like this have been all too common for the Bulldogs in recent years.

      In another huge shocker, much-maligned Texas took care of #12 Oklahoma 36-20 in this classic rivalry game. With the win Mack Brown can breath a little easier, while Bob Stoops is yet another year removed from that last National Championship that happened oh so long ago.

      Meanwhile, #18 Michigan managed to lose to Penn State in an overtime thriller, though this one is hardly a surprise. The undefeated Wolverines have been barely escaping with wins against mediocre teams all season. It finally caught up to them.

      For a while it looked like Boston College might upset #3 Clemson, but everything fell apart for them in the fourth quarter.

      The top 25 will change quite a bit tomorrow, and we’re looking at a potential battle between 4 sets of teams to play in the National Championship game: Alabama (or possibly a one-loss SEC winner other than Alabama), Oregon (or maybe UCLA if they win out), the ACC winner (Clemson, Florida State or Miami) and Ohio State (no other Big Ten team has a chance).

      Of course, if everyone starts losing, even teams like an undefeated Louisville or Baylor could have a shot, but chances are the game will be played between two of the teams mentioned above.

      College Football

      Bucs release Josh Freeman

      October 3, 2013 /

      The ridiculous Josh Freeman drama has ended, at least in an official sense, as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have finally released him.

      The Greg Schiano debacle continues, however. Schiano has become a caricature of the blustery college coach who pulls all sorts of stunts to make himself look tough to his players, only to end up alienating all of them on his way to the unemployment line. It was obvious even before this clown pulled off the victory-formation fiasco last year.

      The fact that he chased away Josh Freemen might be the least of his mistakes though, as Freemen was good but also inconsistent. He really needs to improve before anyone will consider him a championship-caliber quarterback, and there’s no guarantee he ever will. For his own sake, he might want to focus on getting a great backup job in a place like Green Bay where he can learn under Aaron Rodgers or maybe in San Francisco where he can be an ideal backup to Colin Kaepernick.

      We haven’t heard the last of this story. I suspect Schiano won’t survive the season.

      NFL

      Questions about Andy Dalton in Cincy

      October 2, 2013 /

      Andy Dalton is a pretty good quarterback. The question is whether he can ever be any better than that and actually lead the Cincinnati Bengals to a playoff win, let alone the Super Bowl. With his lame performance against the Cleveland Browns this past Sunday, questions are starting to emerge around the league and in Cincinnati as to Dalton’s ceiling as a quarterback.

      Dalton has a decent arm, but not a great arm. Under pressure his accuracy seems to falter as well. The Bengals were looked at as a legitimate Super Bowl contender, but Dalton always made me skeptical about that prediction, and now his recent performances are causing more people to be skeptical as well.

      NFL

      Cheering from across the pond

      October 2, 2013 /

      A great lack of support – both physical and financial – is evident throughout the ranks of British basketball, but it’s perhaps no clearer than in the country’s premier basketball league, the BBL. Following multi-million-pound support prior to the 2012 Olympics, UK Sport withdrew it’s funding from the BBL in January 2013, unhappy with the national team’s poor performance at the games (Great Britain won just one 1 their 5 group games, failing to progress to the knockout stages).

      But while it could be said that British basketball is struggling, basketball in Britain certainly is not.

      A huge and ever expanding base of enthusiasm for american basketball, namely the NBA, is becoming increasingly more visible; take a walk down the high-street and you’ll spot 100 NBA uniforms for every Leicester Riders or London Lions jersey you see. Some of this may be the fashion choice of those emulating the styles of US music artists, but for the most part it’s proud basketball fans. Britain is hungry for the NBA, and in the age of unlimited broadband capacity and Sky Sports HD, it has never been more internationally acessible.

      But British fans no longer need only cheer from across the pond.

      The NBA has been staging regular season games in the UK since the mid-nineties, but when the New York Knicks met the Detroit Pistons at the O2 Arena in January 2013, the game sold out. That’s a crowd of nearly 19,000, which is just a touch above the average attendance for these teams on the other side of the water. But compare that with the 7,500 that attended the BBL Cup Final that same week, and it becomes a lot more significant. If you want to see what teh Brits are currently betting on as that is always a good indicator of where their hearts lie you can always check out http://betfair.com/ as it’s a popular choice for Brittish sports fans.

      Without local pride in any team in ‘The League’, British fan’s interest tends to focus on those franchises boasting the most exciting players, with this driven by the smart way in which players are branded. Brits sporting current NBA champions Miami Heat jerseys will most likely be wearing the no.6 of MVP Lebron James, and they most likely have the no.23 shirt of James’ previous team the Cleveland Cavliers stashed in their wardrobe. Similarly, there has been a notable increase in online viewing figures of LA Clippers games in the past few seasons, who were relatively ignored before acquiring crowd-pleasers Chris Paul and Blake Griffin.

      NBA

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