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      2010 NFL Week 15 Odds

      December 15, 2010 /
      PHILADELPHIA - NOVEMBER 21: Michael Vick of the Philadelphia Eagles runs with the ball against Antrel Rolle of the New York Giants at Lincoln Financial Field on November 21, 2010 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images)

      Eagles (9-4) @ Giants (9-4), 1:00PM ET
      This game right here, is what the NFL is about. While the participants in the NFC West continue to play, “Who sucks less?” a legitimate grudge match will take place at the New Meadowlands this Sunday. The Eagles seemingly hold an advantage because they weren’t the ones who had to stay in an airport for two days only to have their game moved to an entirely different city on Monday night. But that won’t be an excuse for the Giants. This is the NFC East and these are the Philadelphia Eagles – a team the Giants should be more than familiar with by now. It’s gut-check time for Eli Manning, who leads the league in interceptions with 19. With how good the Giants’ defense and running game has been of late, there are excuses for Eli starting this weekend. He must play better. On the other side, what is Andy Reid doing to ensure that Michael Vick doesn’t take a pounding courtesy of the Giants’ nasty front seven? You know they’ll be coming after him. Buckle your chinstraps – we’ve got a war in the NFC East this Sunday.
      CURRENT ODDS: GIANTS –2.5

      Jaguars (8-5) @ Colts (7-6), 1:00PM ET
      It doesn’t get any easier for the Colts: If they lose this Sunday, they’re out of the playoffs. If they win their remaining three games, they’re in. See? Easy. The Jaguars currently own a one-game lead over the Colts in the AFC South and have already beaten Indy once this season (a wild 31-28 nail biter in Week 4). A win this weekend would mean an unexpected AFC South crown but that won’t be easy. Peyton Manning threw for over 300 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions last week in a win over the Titans. Prior to that game, he had thrown 11 interceptions in a three-game span but by the looks of things last week, he’s starting to figure things out. With the Jaguars’ currently sitting at 28th in the league in passing yards allowed (258.3), you know Manning will go after the Jacksonville secondary early and often. On the other side, can the Colts’ soft defense slow Maurice Jones-Drew?
      CURRENT ODDS: COLTS –4.5

      Saints (10-3) @ Ravens (9-4), 1:00PM ET
      John Harbaugh can’t feel too great about the way the Ravens’ won in Houston on Monday night. His team had a 28-7 lead early in the third quarter and then went into a coma before waking up in overtime. With Drew Brees and a red-hot Saints team coming to town, now isn’t the time for the vaunted Baltimore defense to be giving up scoring drives of 90-plus yards. If Harbaugh can’t figure out where the leaks are coming from, Brees and Sean Payton will pick them apart. The Ravens can ill-afford to suffer another loss in a tight AFC playoff race and if they have any hope of winning the AFC North, then they can’t lose this weekend. The Steelers will likely get a free win against the hapless Jets and Pittsburgh owns a one-game lead and the tiebreaker based on winning percentage in the division. Time to see what Harbaugh’s squad is made of.
      CURRENT ODDS: RAVENS –1

      Packers (8-5) @ Patriots (11-2), 8:20PM ET
      The Packers dug themselves a hole by losing to the Lions last weekend in Detroit and could be without Aaron Rodgers (concussion) this Sunday night in New England. Matt Flynn can’t beat the Patriots on his own and Tom Brady and Co. look like an unstoppable force. The odds are definitely stacked against Green Bay, which is why they need to hope the Bears lose to the Vikings on Monday night. Even if Chicago wins though, the Packers’ playoff hopes would still be alive (however slim). If the Lions can beat the Bucs (one of the teams the Packers are battling with for a Wild Card spot) earlier in the day, maybe it’ll inspire Flynn to turn in the performance of a lifetime. That seems highly unlikely at this point but hey, crazier things have happened.

      NFL Week 15 Odds:

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      External Sports, NFL

      Ref gets attacked by high schooler [video]

      December 15, 2010 /

      From the YouTube description:

      The game ended in forfeit after the player from Desoto High School in Arcadia, FL attacked the referee after being issued a technical foul and was ejected from the game. The player has been banned from all extracurricular school activites according to the coach, suspended till January 10th as of now, and a police report has been filed. However, the official involved chose not to press charges at this time.

      Skip ahead to the 1:20 mark and watch the player in the white jersey inbound the ball. His defender bodies him up and the player responds.

      I didn’t think the player deserved to get tossed until the second shove on his defender. Obviously, his reaction to the play was completely inappropriate.

      External Sports, Fantasy Basketball, NBA, Video

      It’s time for Eli Manning to step up

      December 15, 2010 /
      EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ - DECEMBER 05: Eli Manning of the New York Giants signals a play against the Washington Redskins on December 5, 2010 at the New Meadowlands Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

      It’s never easy for a quarterback to not have his full complement of receivers. Steve Smith had just returned from missing a month with a torn pectoral muscle only to suffer a season-ending knee injury in the Giants’ win over the Vikings on Sunday night. Now he’s done for the year and just as Hakeem Nicks returned to the starting lineup following a leg injury of his own, Mario Manningham suffered a hip flexor in the victory over Minnesota.

      But while the Giants’ receiving corps has been tattered and frayed for the better part of a month, Eli Manning can’t blame all of his struggles on injuries to his wideouts.

      Up until Monday night, the Giants hadn’t given up a sack in five games and while sack numbers can be a little misleading (defenses can still pressure quarterbacks without recording sacks), it shows that Manning has had time to throw. Kevin Boothe has played very well at left guard and now that David Diehl is back in the starting lineup, the offensive line as a whole should be in tune for the stretch run.

      But even with the success New York’s offensive line has had of late, Manning continues to struggle. He leads the league in interceptions with 19 and while some of those had to do with balls that gleaned off the hands of his receivers earlier in the year, the ones he’s thrown lately have been mostly on him. (The two picks he threw against the Vikings were a product of releasing the ball late.)

      Granted, Drew Brees has 18 interceptions and nobody is concerned about him. But he’s not routinely throwing off his back foot either. It appears as though Eli has reverted back to some of the bad habits he had early in his career, where he’s not setting his feet or squaring his shoulders to his target. He also seems to be hesitating while making decisions, which is causing him to throw off his back foot and often times, into the waiting arms of a defender.

      With Asante Samuel set to return to the Eagles’ secondary this weekend, now would be a perfect time for Manning to shake out of the season-long funk he’s been in. It’s a little perplexing that his coaching staff hasn’t ironed out the kinks yet, but now it’s up to him to figure out why his mechanics and decision-making are off and fix them immediately. While Philadelphia can’t eliminate the Giants from playoff contention this week, the G-Men’s hopes will certainly take a massive hit with a loss. The Saints don’t show any signs of slowing down and the Bucs can continue to feed on poor competition (i.e. the Lions and Seahawks) over the next two weeks until they play New Orleans in Week 17.

      Thus, it’s gut-check time for Eli. His offensive line is playing well and the running game isn’t opening up passing lanes. He can’t be the factor that holds them back from this point on.

      External Sports, NFL

      Terrell Owens sounds off about Bengals’ front office, coaches

      December 15, 2010 /
      ATLANTA - OCTOBER 24: Terrell Owens of the Cincinnati Bengals against the Atlanta Falcons at Georgia Dome on October 24, 2010 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

      What, did you really think T.O. would go through an entire 16-game losing season and not say a word?

      On the latest installment of the T.Ocho Show on Versus (side note: Does anyone watch that show? I can count on zero fingers how many people I know that do.), Ochocinco asked Owens why the Bengals are 2-11.

      Not surprisingly, T.O. had an answer.

      From the Cincinnati Enquirer:

      “I think there is underachieving you know from the top down,” Owens said. “You start off with the owner, you start off with the coaches and obviously we as players. We are a product of what the coaches are doing, are coaching us throughout the course of the week. Of course we have to go out there and play the game but in order for us to do what we’re allowed to do at the best of our ability the coaches have to put the players in the best position.”

      I’ve seen headlines that read, “T.O. blasts coaching staff,” in reference to the quotes above. But I’ve read what he said about four times now and honestly, I don’t think he’s specifically calling out his coaching staff. And in the grand spectrum of things, this is T.O. Lite in comparison to the stuff that usually comes out of his mouth.

      It’s not hard to figure out what’s going on with the Bengals. The entire franchise has had a losing mentality since the late 80s and while they’ve had moments over the past two decades (2004, 2009), they’ve largely been stuck in a massive rut. They thought they found a capable head coach in Marvin Lewis to turn things around and it looks like he isn’t the answer. They thought they found a capable quarterback in Carson Palmer to lift the franchise out of the doldrums and he hasn’t been the same since the hit he took in the ’04 playoffs.

      But it’s not just the head coach and it’s not just the quarterback – it’s a collection of things that have led the Bengals to this point. The players aren’t executing, the game plans that the coaches are putting together are failing miserably and the ownership doesn’t have a clue how to turn things around. And unfortunately for all parties involved, there seemingly are no answers and no solutions.

      Actually, there is one solution but Mike Brown has been unwilling to agree to it: they need to hire a general manager. Hire a good general manager (I’m sure the Patriots have one lying around in their film room), allow him to pick his head coach and then find a quarterback. Once those three things are in place, maybe the ball will get rolling forward for once instead of backwards onto the legions of fans that still mercifully support this team.

      I know it’s easier said than done, but at what point does Mike Brown punch a hole through his drawing board and start over?

      External Sports, NFL

      The 10 Best Fights in WEC History

      December 15, 2010 /

      Mitch Ciccarelli of HeavyMMA.com breaks down the top 10 best fights in WEC history.

      10. Chris Leben vs. Mike Swick: WEC 9 (1/16/2004)
      One year prior to becoming household names on the original cast of “The Ultimate Fighter,” Chris Leben and Mike Swick went to war in this WEC classic. At the time, the WEC wasn’t owned by Zuffa. The sport itself was struggling for mainstream acceptance.
      After an action-packed first round, these two strikers stood in the pocket and traded punches until Leben dropped Swick with a thunderous left hand to become the first WEC middleweight champion. Leben would then vacate the belt to take part in the very first TUF and the rest is history.

      9. Mike Brown vs. Urijah Faber: WEC 36 (11/5/2008)
      “The California Kid” Urijah Faber was (and still is) the face of the WEC. When Zuffa purchased the organization in 2006, Faber was their most marketable asset and also a dominant champion at 145 lbs.
      With five consecutive title defenses under his belt, Faber was considered as close to untouchable as one could get. But his invincible mystique would come to an end at the hands of Mike Brown, who not only defeated Faber, but knocked him out in the very first round to claim the featherweight championship.

      Check out the rest of the top 10.

      External Sports, UFC, WEC

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