No real shock here as the heavy favorite came away with the award last night. Newton received 729 first place votes and maybe the only real surprise was that there were actually 140 first place votes that he DIDN'T get. Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck finished second, but was 1,184 points behind Newton in the overall voting. Oregon running back LaMichael James placed third despite getting fewer first place votes than 4th place finisher, Boise St. quarterback Kellen Moore.
SNOWED OUT IN THE METRODOME
Well, you don't see that every day. With the Metrodome Roof essentially collapsing under the weight of a blizzard, the Metrodome was deemed unfit for football today. In fact, it remains to be seen just how long it's going to be shut down for. The Giants-Vikings game scheduled for today has been moved to Detroit's Ford Field and will be played tomorrow night instead.
As crazy as it may sound, this wasn't the first time a game inside a dome has been cancelled due to inclement weather. Obviously Hurricane Katrina shut down the Superdome for some time, but the Astrodome actually had a game called on account of rain on June 15, 1976 when severe flooding prevented the umpires from being able to reach the stadium.
CASSEL SITS, CHIEFS LOSE BY 31
As late as yesterday the Kansas City Chiefs still hadn't ruled out Matt Cassel from being able to play against San Diego today after his emergency appendectomy on Wednesday. Finally it came out on Saturday night that he didn't travel with the team and would not be available to them leaving Brodie Croyle (0-9 lifetime as a starter coming into the game) to get the call. The Chiefs went on to play today without their leader on offense and got absolutely flattened by San Diego. Looking to bounce back from a tough loss to the Raiders last week, San Diego did just that holding the Chiefs to just 67 yard of total offense and only five first downs. On 3rd downs the Chiefs failed to convert on 11 tries. The Chiefs now have just a 1 game lead in the AFC West.
As I said earlier in the week, I'm honestly surprised it took that long to rule him out. It's not surgery to repair a torn ACL or anything like that, but it's still surgery. You're still talking cutting through the abdominal muscles. In any case, he shouldn't have been playing today. You could argue that playing next week might not be a great idea either. When Ben Roethlisberger had an appendectomy to start the 2006 season, he essentially went two weeks before playing in a game. In his first three games coming back Big Ben led the defending Super Bowl Champion Steelers to 3 straight losses (Jacksonville, Cincinnati and San Diego), and completed just 55 of 102 passes with 0 touchdowns and 7 interceptions. We'll see if Cassel fairs any better when he finally comes back. Chiefs fans better hope so because they are not a very good team with Brodie Croyle at quarterback.
I HATE TO SAY THIS BUT THE MIAMI HEAT ARE STARTING TO LOOK GOOD
Just when things seemed to be falling apart in Miami, the Heat have finally started to put things together. Coming off their 4th loss in 5 games and floundering around the .500 mark, the Heat have now reeled off 8 straight wins and at 17-8, now lead the Southeast Division and have the 2nd best record in the East behind the Boston Celtics. The only problem in trying to catch Boston is that while the Heat have won 8 in a row, Boston has now won 10 in a row. Speaking of long winning streaks, New York has also won 8 straight and the Mavericks 12. But back to Miami, are they really putting it all together, or is their streak a testament to their opponents? The 8 straight wins came against Washington (without John Wall), Detroit, at Cleveand where Lebron James finally broke out of his slump, Atlanta at home, at Milwaukee, at Utah, at Golden State (without Stephon Curry) and at Sacramento. While the Utah win is impressive, especially after blowing that huge lead against them earlier in the year, and the Cleveland win was "important" from a confidence standpoint, the other wins don't really jump off the page. With a struggling Hornets team and the Cavaliers coming up on the schedule, it's quite likely that this streak hits 10 games before the Heat head up to Madison Square Garden to take on Amare Stoudemire and the Knicks on Friday in a big Eastern Conference Showdown. How they play in that game, then on December 20th at home against the Mavs and finally on Christmas Day in LA against the Lakers will really allow us to see where they're at. For now though, they're definitely gaining confidence, and that's a scary thing for the rest of the league.
SAM BRADFORD MAKES A PLAY FOR QUARTERBACKS EVERYWHERE
On a play that ended up not even counting, Sam Bradford made a play that will make quarterbacks (and coaches) all over the country, heck the WORLD, proud against New Orleans today. When Steven Jackson appeared to fumble at the 1 and the ball was swooped up by Defensive Back Roman Harper, it appeared to be 6 points for New Orleans. But Sam Bradford chased him down and forced him out of bounds 80-some-odd yards later. To be clear, Sam Bradford is not Michael Vick. But nonetheless, he chased down a cornerback. Heck of a play. Jackson ended up being ruled down and Bradford would take it in from the 1 on the next play. The best part about this play is that this wasn't a play to save the game, this was a play in a blowout. New Orleans led 31-6 at this point, but Bradford never gave up on the play and that says a ton about the kind of player and leader he is. The Rams are in good hands moving forward.
Sam Bradford Chases Down Roman Harper
SOX PUTTING PRESSURE ON NEW YORK
With the additions of Carl Crawford ($142M/7yrs) and Adrian Gonzalez (similar deal likely to follow), the Boston Red Sox are putting pressure on the New York Yankees to make a move. The logical one, seeing the two big lefty bats just added to Boston's lineup, would be to do whatever it takes for them to get free agent lefty Cliff Lee. But should he decide to stay in Texas or sign elsewhere, what do the Yankees do then? Keep an eye on this storyline in the coming weeks. You know one or the other, the Yankees aren't going to go quietly.
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