January 16th update

Favorites tumble in NFC, coast in AFC

• The NFL playoffs always have a few twists and turns and this year has been no exception. The Two most impressive teams over the course of this season according to many were the New Orleans Saints and Green Bay Packers, led by MVP favorite Aaron Rodgers and likely runner-up Drew Brees. However both lost over the weekend as the Saints couldnt survive a crazy 4th quarter against the San Francisco 49ers and the Packers fell flat at home against Eli Manning and the New York Giants.

• The Saints fell behind 17-0 early and looked to be in trouble but quickly recovered and actually took the lead twice late in the game. However, the Saints have not been good on defense all year and could not guard TE Vernon Davis who torched them for 3 TD's including two in the fourth quarter and one with 9 seconds left in the game to provide the final margin of victory for the Nniers.

• The biggest play of the Packers-Giants game undeniably came at the end of the first half. With the Giants on the Packers 37 yard line, clinging to a 13-10 lead with just seconds remaining in the half, coach Tom Coughlin opted not to kick a Field Goal, instead throwing a Hail Mary pass which was inexplicably caught by Giants WR Hakeem "the Dream" Nicks. Green Bay never recovered and lost 37-20.

•The other two games were less surprising as the Patriots obliterated the Tim Tebow-led Broncos 45-10 with Tom Brady throwing for a playoff recorde tying 6 TD's just minutes into the second half, 3 of which went to TE Rob Gronkowski. The Baltimore Ravens won with their standard formula of defense and mistake free football, committing 0 penalties and 0 turnovers to barely edge the upstart Houston Texans 20-13. San Francisco and New England will host the Championship games next week with the winner playing in the Super Bowl on February 5th.

Yankees Make Big Moves

• Entering this offseason, the biggest question for the New York Yankees was surrounding their starting pitching. After their ace CC Sabathia, the Yankees pitching staff was a large question mark. However, in a flurry of moves within about an hour of each other on Friday night the Yankees took two big steps to shore up the rest of their staff.
• The biggest move was acquiring Seattle pitching phenom Michael Pineda. Pineda will be a top 3 starter for the Yankees (joining Sabathia and Phil Hughes) and made the All-Star team last year at the ripe old age of 22. He's still raw and has the ability to improve but he's a bright star with a lot of upside that the Yankees hope will be realized. The Yankees gave up star catching prospect Jesus Montero in this trade, showing just how high they are Pineda.

• The other move was signing former Dodgers starter Hideki Kuroda to a one year deal which will give them a quality arm in 2012 and will probably allow their two young young minor league stars (Manny Banuelos and Dellin Betances) another year to develop and be coached.
The last two spots of the rotation can be filled with a number of prospects or established veterans.

Australian Open Starts this Week

• The Australian Open, the start of the Tennis season, kicked off on Sunday in Sydney. Many of the stories of this years tournament have come off the court. Venus Williams pulled out prior to the tournament due to an autoimmune disease that has kept her out of competition since August. Additionally, interesting comments from her sister Serena made some doubt her commitment, and comments about gay marriage by Australian tennis legend Margaret Court have given the tournament yet another front page talking point.
• In the Women’s bracket, #1 seed Caroline Wozniacki should have a nice path to a championship. She may have to play Li Na (last year’s runner up) in the semifinals. The toughest bracket is the one containing Serena, world #3 Vera Zvonereva and former Grand Slam event champions Svetlana Kuznetsova and Maria Sharapova
• In the Men’s bracket, the usual suspects are around. World ranked #1 Novak Djokovic is the prohibitive favorite but he will have to face the standard bearers of the last 10 years in Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, who have been feuding recently with regard to player's rights. Incredibly, in the past 27 Men's Grand Slam events, only one (the 2009 U.S. Open won by Juan Martin Del Potro) was won by someone other than Federer, Nadal or Djokovic.

January 9th update

Explosive shootout in the Bayou:

• The NFL Playoffs started this weekend and featured some amazing games. The New Orleans Saints defeated the Detroit Lions in the much anticipated matchup of 5'000 yard passing QB's Drew Brees and Matt Stafford. The Lions had a great first half, nursing a 14-10 lead going into halftime over the favored Saints, and they looked like they had the game under control. But then Drew Brees did would Drew Brees does and the Saints went on a tear in the second half, scoring 5 touchdowns while only allowing 2. A game with a slow start took off and put up more than 70 points on the board as the final score was 45-28 Saints. The Lions have been a feel good story this year, will look to build on this season next year.


Steelers get Tebow’d in Overtime

• The Denver Broncos shocked the Pittsburgh Steelers 29-23 in the final game of the weekend after Tim Tebow finally had a breakout passing game, going 10 for 21 for 316 yards and 2 TD's, a shocking 31.6 yards per completion. The Steelers went into storming comeback mode in the second half of the game after being 20-6 at the break.
• Pittsburgh was able to figure out the Broncos stout defense scoring 17 points in the second half, and holding the Tebow-led Broncos to only a field goal. Unfortunately they could not close out the game in regulation. The Broncos won the coin toss and scored on their first play when Tebow found fellow second year player Demaryius Thomas on a 20 yard pass over the middle of the field, which Thomas took to the house after stiff-arming one tackler and outrunning the others.
• Tebow's Broncos go on to play against the Patriots next week, and leave many football experts questioning what they actually know about the game after nearly everyone predicted that the experienced Steelers defense would stymie and Broncos offense that had struggled to three consecutive losses to finish the regular season.


Texans, Giants advance with ease

• The other two games were the Houston Texans defeating the Cincinnati Bengals 31-10 in the Texans first ever playoff game and the New York Giants defeating the Atlanta Falcons by the strange score of 24-2. Two blowouts were surprising as the teams seemed more even than the score would indicate. The Texans rode a strong performance by running back Arian Foster who ran for 153 yards and 2 touchdowns. The Giants won largely due to their pass rush hammering the Falcons running and passing games all day. The Falcons looked anemic and failed to convert on two short fourth downs that may have changed the complexion of the game. It is the second straight year that the Falcons have lost badly in their first playoff game despite having one of the better records in the NFC during the regular season.

January 6th update

Kings fire coach after spat with player

• The Sacramento Kings made a strong statement in support of young Center Demarcus Cousins on Wednesday night, firing coach Paul Westphal after the two were in a fight. Apparently at the end of a game Cousins began shouting at his coach and demanded to be traded. This has been disputed, but nonetheless Westphal issued this statement through the team's website making it seem like Cousins may indeed be traded.
• Owners rarely side with players in situations like this however Westphal's almost immediate firing afterwards certainly comes as a strong commitment to the talented but mercurial Cousins. Perhaps owners Gavin and Joe Maloof realized that Westphal had permanently damaged his relationship with the center and that he wasn't going to help the team as much in the coming years as a potentially great tandem of Cousins and PG Tyreke Evans.
• Westphal's replacement is King's assistant coach Keith Smart. Smart only played one sesason in the NBA, but has been a coach in the League since 2000; including as head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2003 and the Golden State Warriors from 2010-2011. Smart is perhaps best known for a shot he hit in college. As a member of the Indiana Hoosiers in 1987, Smart hit a jump shot in the national championship game that that gave the Hoosiers a 74-73 lead at the buzzer to win the championship.


NFL Playoffs Begin this Weekend

• Saturday at 4:30: Cincinnati Bengals at Houston Texans – The Houston Texans limped into the playoffs but nonetheless get to play at home in their first ever playoff matchup. Starting their third string rookie quarterback and nursing injuries to many of their major position players the Texans are hurting. Luckily they start the playoffs against the Cincinnati Bengals who are a very young and untested team who also starts a rookie QB, Andy Dalton who some are calling "Shawshank" (since his first name is Andy and his hair is Red, the names of the two main characters from that movie).
• Saturday at 8:00: Detroit Lions at New Orleans Saints – Only five times in the history of the NFL has a quarterback thrown for 5'000 yards and 2 of the five were achieved by the two starting QB's in this game (Drew Brees and Matt Stafford) in 2011. That being said it would appear that the Detroit Lions are heading into a buzz saw disguised in a Mardi Gras outfit. The New Orleans Saints are coming off of the best offensive season in NFL history, and will face a Detroit defense that has been kindly described as suspect. The Lions are back in the playoffs after more than a decade of ineptness, but many in Vegas are expecting this to be a blowout in favor of the Saints.
• Sunday at 1:00: Atlanta Falcons at New York Giants – Probably the most evenly matched game of the weekend features the Eli Manning led Giants against the Matt Ryan led Falcons. The Giants are looking to keep their momentum after a big win last weekend against the Dallas Cowboys, while the Falcons are looking to win a playoff game for the first time in more than 5 years.
• Sunday at 4:30: Pittsburgh Steelers at Denver Broncos – The Steelers will try and contain the Denver Broncos and QB Tim Tebow, who you may have heard of if you haven't been living under a rock. The Steelers are considered favorites but are dealing with multiple injuries. QB Ben Roethlisburger is nursing a bad ankle sprain, while Safety Ryan Clark and Running Back Rashard Mendenhall have already been ruled out of the game.

December 19th update

Packers fall, Colts finally win

• If someone had told you Sunday morning that the vaunted 13-0 Green Bay Packers would lose while the listless 0-13 Indianapolis Colts, playing without franchise QB Peyton Manning would win, most people would think you were either crazy or joking, but you would have been right.
• The Packers and Aaron Rodgers were harrassed by a fearsome Kansas City Chiefs pass rush led by Tamba Hali and his 3 sacks (which leaves him 1 behind the AFC leader). The Packers never looked comfortable due to a great strategy by interim coach Romeo Crennel (he's taking over for Todd Haley who was fired this week) who had the Chiefs play 5+ speedy defensive backs to guard the Packers wide receivers on nearly every play. The Chiefs have lost most of their best players to injury this season but the one constant has been Hali who has certainly earned the 5 year, $60 million deal he signed this offseason.
• On the other side of the NFL landscape, the Indianapolis Colts were so bad that fans are ignoring the season and just wondering whether the team will keep Peyton Manning next year, trade him and start presumptive #1 pick Andrew Luck or keep both and have Manning mentor Luck. But despite playing a pretty good Tennessee Titans team, the Colts dominated in every aspect and won easily. Dan Orlovsky, the Colts QB in this game, won for the first time as a NFL starter and the Colts won for the first time with a QB other than Peyton Manning since this game (notice the date). The QB in that game was Jim Harbaugh, now the coach of the San Francisco 49ers, who play the Pittsburgh Steelers tonight in a matchup of 10-3 teams.
It was only the third time in NFL history that a team that was 10-0 or better lost and a team that was 0-10 or worse won on the same day.
• In other news, The Tebow train came to a screeching halt against the New England Patriots, the Baltimore Ravens (the first place team in the AFC) got crushed by the San Diego Chargers, and the Detroit Lions took a big step towards making the playoffs with another late comeback, this time beating the Oakland Raiders after being behind by 13 points with 5 minutes left.


Making it look Breesy

• The New Orleans Saints continue to win... again and Quarterback Drew Brees is currently on pace for a season never seen before in the NFL. While his Green Bay Packers counterpart Aaron Rodgers is getting a lot more publicity and more attention from car insurance agents, Brees is on the brink of breaking two of the most sacred quarterbacking records.
• From 1956-1960 Johnny Unitas had a streak of 47 consecutive games with a touchdown pass. Besides Brees the closest anybody has come to that streak in the last 50 years was Brett Favre’s streak of 36 straight games. Coming into this weekend, Brees’ streak stood at 40 straight games. Just to make sure there was no doubt about 41, Brees threw for 5 touchdowns on Sunday. Tom Brady also has a streak of note, with a TD in 29 straight games, the 5th longest in history.
• In 1984 Dan Marino of the Miami Dolphins threw for 5,084 yards setting a single-season record that still stands today. In 2008 Brees came tantalizingly close to eclipsing that record but fell just short, throwing for 5,069 yards. This season Brees has thrown for 4,780 yards, and has two games left to get the additional 305 yards he needs to break the record. The craziest part of this is that Brees could very easily set a record that has stood for more than 25 years with a game to spare!


Note - Keep looking this week as we will have a preview of the major bowl games and a preview of the NBA season for your enjoyment.