Page 491 of 2956

      Eight key players to watch in the NFL Divisional Round

      January 14, 2011 /

      This series is brought to you by T.G.I Fridays®, encouraging you to Rush in and Tackle their new Game Time Menu!

      It’s the playoffs, where team matters more than individual players. But there are several key players that hold their team’s hopes in their hands this weekend and we’ve listed eight of them (one for each team) below.

      In no particular order…

      1. Terrell Suggs, Ravens
      The Ravens have been waiting for this guy to return to form and he finally has. Suggs looks hungry, motivated and determined to get the Ravens to a Super Bowl. If Baltimore’s front seven is able to take away Rashard Mendenhall and force the Steelers to be one-dimensional this Saturday, then Suggs needs to get after Ben Roethlisberger. Mike Wallace is a true homerun threat and can score from anywhere on the field, so Suggs and Co. can’t give Big Ben time to throw. Getting pressure on the quarterback is always vital in football, especially in the postseason where one or two plays can decide the outcome of a game.

      2. Troy Polamalu, Steelers
      I realize this is an obvious one but I don’t care: Polamalu is the key to whether or not the Steelers will be playing in the Super Bowl in a couple of weeks. He’s vital to their defense because when he’s not on the field, it’s a completely different unit. When the Steelers and Ravens met in Pittsburgh late in the season, it was his forced fumble of Joe Flacco that set up Pittsburgh’s offense to score the eventual game-winning touchdown. He’s a playmaker in every sense of the word but he’s also been battling an Achilles/ankle injury so he’s not 100 percent. If he’s able to fly around the field and create havoc like he normally does, then Baltimore will have a tough time moving the ball this weekend.

      3. James Starks (Packers)
      The football world is now enamored with this young man – and for good reason. The past two games, Starks has given Green Bay something it’s been searching for all year: balance. The Packers have already proven that they can win when Aaron Rodgers has to throw the ball but it’s much tougher on a defense when they can’t sit back in coverage on most downs. In the first meeting between the Packers and Falcons, Atlanta didn’t have to respect the run. But after Starks rushed for 123 yards on 23 carries last weekend against the Eagles, the Falcons may not have the luxury of dropping extra defenders into coverage.

      Continue reading »

      External Sports, NFL

      Five Questions: Jets vs. Patriots

      January 14, 2011 /
      New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) calls a play in the huddle in the first quarter against the New York Jets at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts on December 6, 2010. The Patriots defeated the Jets 45-3. UPI/Matthew Healey

      Matchup: Jets (11-5) @ Patriots (14-2)
      Kickoff: 4:30PM ET, Sunday

      1. Can the combination of Sanchez and Schottenheimer top Belichick?
      Earlier this week, Jets’ coach Rex Ryan essentially told the media that this game will come down to whether or not he can raise his level of coaching to match that of Bill Belichick. I understand what he was saying, but I disagree with him. This game won’t come down to Ryan – it’ll come down to whether or not Brian Schottenheimer can raise his game. While Ryan certainly has his hands full trying to figure out a way to slow the Patriots’ offense, Schottenheimer must design a game plan that will top Belichick’s defense. Outside of a couple of throws, Mark Sanchez did not play well last weekend in Indianapolis. It was the Jets’ running game and defense that propelled them to victory. So first off, can Sanchez play better? If he can, will his offensive coordinator put together an intelligent game plan so that he can exploit the very few weaknesses that the Patriots have?

      2. Will the Pats overlook the Jets?
      There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that the Patriots are the better football team in this matchup. They have a tremendous coaching staff, they’re always prepared and they have the best quarterback in the league in Tom Brady. But in Week 9, the Pats were beaten by the Browns because they started reading their own press clippings. They did it again in Week 15 after rattling off five in a row and were set to face an Aaron Rodgers-less Packers team at home. Matt Flynn nearly beat them that night, as New England’s defense looked flummoxed in a narrow 31-27 victory. With all the trash talk the Jets have been doing this week, it’s highly unlikely that the Patriots will overlook their most hated rivals. But they also beat this team 45-3 just over a month ago and it’s human nature to think that things will play out the same way. Belichick needs to remind his team that the Jets have already beaten them once this season and they’re not going to be caught unprepared like in the last meeting.

      3. Can the Jets get their running game going again?
      The Jets beat the Colts last week because they were able to run the football in the second half and leave Peyton Manning on the sidelines. They have to do that again if they’re going to pull off another upset. It’s a pipedream to think Sanchez will out-duel Brady, so the Jets need their defense and running game to be as good, if not better than they were against the Colts. A couple of costly turnovers by Sanchez hurt the Jets in their 45-3 loss to the Patriots in December. He must protect the football so the Jets don’t fall behind early and are forced to throw in order to get back into the game. New England has given up 108.0 yards per game this year and an average of 104.0 YPG over the past three weeks. LaDainian Tomlinson and Shonn Greene won’t be able to run all over the Pats this weekend, but they might be able to control the tempo again like last Saturday.

      4. How will Woody’s injury affect the Jets?
      Damien Woody was arguably the Jets’ best run-blocker, so losing him for the season could be catastrophic. New York needs to be able to run the ball on Sunday if it’s going to pull off an upset and without Woody that could be difficult. Plus, you have to figure that Belichick will figure out a way to exploit the injury and cause some havoc for Sanchez. There’s no other way to put it: Wayne Hunter (Woody’s replacement) must step up this weekend.

      5. Can the Pats stop Keller again?
      I the Jets’ 28-14 victory over the Patriots in Week 2, Dustin Keller caught seven passes for 115 yards and two touchdowns. In the teams’ second meeting, he caught just three passes for 27 yards and was only targeted four times. You can probably bet that Sanchez will look his tight end’s way more this weekend in effort to spread the ball around and keep New England’s defense guessing. Keller has long been a hidden weapon in the Jets’ passing game and he’s killed teams over the middle this season. New England can’t fall asleep on this guy because he can hurt defenses.

      External Sports, NFL

      Bill Simmons argues that Carmelo should join the Clippers

      January 13, 2011 /

      Keep in mind that Simmons, a Clippers season ticket holder, made a similar case last year that LeBron should come to L.A. and look how that turned out.

      Anyway, here’s his case:

      Griffin is the most meaningful in-the-air player since Shawn Kemp. Throw in his competitive streak and he did the impossible — he made Baron Davis care about basketball again. As my friend Tollin said last week, “It’s amazing; it’s like Baron has a purpose again.” He’s Blake’s dunk muse. Now the Clips have the foundation of something special: Griffin, Davis, Eric Gordon (a future All-Star) and enough left to make a legitimate offer for Denver: lottery pick Al-Farouq Aminu, Chris Kaman, expiring contracts and the rights to Minnesota’s unprotected 2012 pick (nearly as valuable a trade chip as Favors) for Carmelo and Al Harrington’s horrendous contract that’s the Carmelo Trade Tax. Mrs. Anthony could live in Hollywood and make her next unwatchable reality show. And her husband could play with Griffin, Gordon, Davis, Eric Bledsoe and DeAndre Jordan … a situation that’s between five and 20 times more appealing than New Jersey. Even when you include Donald Sterling.

      From a basketball/quality of living standpoint, you couldn’t do much better than the situation with the Clippers. Anthony-Griffin-Gordon would make an excellent trio to build around and I’ll agree that the building blocks the Clippers could offer (Aminu, Kaman and Minnesota’s unprotected 2012 pick) are almost as good as what the Nets can offer.

      But there’s one thing that stands in the way: Donald Sterling. The Nets’ owner, Mikhail Prokhorov, a.k.a. the Russian Mark Cuban, is infinitely more impressive and Simmons notes that LeBron thought that the Nets meeting was right up there with the Heat’s last summer.

      It will be nice for Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton land in New Jersey with Melo, but only for a year or two, as both players are past their respective primes. It’s really about Brook Lopez and Mikhail Prokhorov versus Blake Griffin, Eric Gordon and Donald Sterling.

      External Sports, Fantasy Basketball, NBA, Rumors & Gossip

      Broncos go with safe choice, hire John Fox

      January 13, 2011 /
      Carolina Panthers head coach John Fox watches as his team loses to the New Orleans Saints 34-3 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina on November 7, 2010. UPI/Nell Redmond .

      While Rick Dennison was initially favored to land the gig, the Broncos were swept away by John Fox’s interview on Wednesday and have decided to make him their 14th head coach in team history.

      This hire makes sense on many levels. The Broncos finished dead last in yards allowed this season and Fox is a defensive-minded coach. After the Josh McDaniels debacle, they didn’t want to take another risk and you couldn’t get less risky than John Fox. He was the Panthers’ head coach since 2002 and during that span, Carolina finished with fewer than seven wins only once (which was this season, when they went 2-14).

      But could the Broncos have gotten more blasé with this hire? Fox has already led a team to the Super Bowl and it certainly wasn’t his fault that the front office left him with practically zero talent to work with last season. But his teams were always the models of inconsistency under his guidance, making the playoffs one year only to finish 7-9 or 8-8 the next. He also stuck with Jake Delhomme as his starter for way too long, even though a blind puppet could see that Delhomme was done years ago.

      He also isn’t a very good schemer. Giant fans loved him when he was the defensive coordinator in New York before he was hired in Carolina, but the Panthers always seemed to have secondary issues over the years. While pundits love to say how he “always gets the most out of his players,” I’ve never heard anyone wax poetically about one of Fox’s game plans.

      What I’ve written doesn’t make Fox a bad coach obviously, but again – he’s the epitome of “meh.” It’ll be interesting to see what happens to Tim Tebow now and if the Broncos plan on going into next season with him as their starter. Fox has had zero success and limited experience developing young quarterbacks, so again, I question the Broncos’ choice here.

      That said, maybe he was the right choice for the Broncos at this particular time. And regardless of my personal feelings about him, the majority of people seem to like him.

      Hey, he can’t be any worse than McDaniels was, right?

      External Sports, NFL

      Brett Favre’s sister arrested on two drug charges

      January 13, 2011 /

      It’s been a rough year for the Favre family.

      Just months after big brother was accused of sending photos of his twig and giggle berries to former Jets’ sideline reporter Jenn Sterger, Brett’s 34-year-old sister Brandi was arrested in a police bust of a meth lab in Mississippi on Wednesday.

      TMZ has the details:

      34-year-old Brandi Favre was busted after cops broke up a meth lab hidden in a condo in an upscale neighborhood.

      Cops told WLOX, “We discovered the full lab in the bathroom; it was still cooking. I think we collected pretty close to ten grams of finished product, which, that’s a lot of meth.”

      Brandi — and 4 others — have all been charged with manufacturing meth, possession of a controlled substance, transferring a controlled substance and generation of hazardous waste.

      UPDATE: Brandi appeared in a Hancock County courtroom this morning, where her bond was set at $40,000.

      Apparently this isn’t the first time that Brandi has been in trouble with the law. According to MSNBC.com, arresting officers said that they are “very familiar” with Favre and that she’s “always in trouble.”

      The good news for Brett is that he doesn’t have to answer any questions about his sister now that the season is over. The bad news is that his sister was just busted for cooking meth. So…six in one, half dozen in the other, I guess.

      Easter should be fun at the Favre household this year. Kids! What have you been up to? Well, Brett texted his wanker to a chick half his age and Brandi got busted in a raid of a meth house. So yeah, been pretty busy.

      External Sports, NFL

      « Older posts Newer posts »

      © 2026 The Scores Report – The National Sports Blog

      Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑