Which Slumping Star Breaks out of his Funk Tonight?

Titans vs Colts. Just a few seasons ago this was a battle for first place in the AFC South. Tonight it's a struggle to avoid elimination from contention. The Titans (5-7) enter tonight's game losers of 5 straight, and the Colts (6-6) are losers of 3 in a row. While both sides have been bitten by the injury bug, their struggles can be traced to the struggles of some of their respective stars.

Peyton Manning- After throwing only 4 interceptions in his first 9 games, Manning has thrown 4 picks in EACH of his last two games and 11 interceptions in his last 3. To make matters worse, 4 of those were returned for touchdowns. Injuries have certainly hurt as Dallas Clark, Joseph Addai, Anthony Gonzalez and Austin Collie are all out of commission. The offensive line has struggled to protect him and the running game without Addai has done nothing to help him out. Will a struggling Titans squad be the cure to his bad recent performance?

Photo Courtesy: coltshighlights.9f.com

Chris Johnson- It's hard to say that Johnson is having an off year when he's already eclipsed 1000 yards with 4 games to go and has 9 touchdowns, but in his last two games he has just 58 rushing yards including an abyssmal 7 carries for 5 yards against the Houston Texans. Johnson's last touchdown came in week 10 against Miami. In the passing game, Johnson has two receptions of longer than 10 yards all season. For a team that is built around ball control, the Titans cannot win if Johnson does not perform.

 

Photo Courtesy: life.com

Randy Moss- I don't know if you can even call this guy a star right now. The Titans have not won a game since acquiring the talented wideout and Moss has just 5 catches in 4 games for a pedestrian 62 yards. Hardly what Jeff Fisher was hoping for when they picked him up. The Titans should get Kenny Britt back from a hamstring injury tonight so maybe that opens things up a little bit. Additionally the Colts have been hampered by injuries in their secondary, so maybe this is where Moss breaks out.

Photo Courtesy: bostonherald.com

Somebody has to win tonight, and logic would dictate that one of these three has to step up for that to happen.

Matt Cassel is out to make me look bad...

So yesterday Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel had his appendix removed. I can empathize with what he went through as I myself endured the same procedure this summer. In the midst of both recreational softball and soccer seasons, I was told by my doctor to lay low and take it easy for at least two weeks so I was shut down for a while. Matt Cassel? He's still listed as having a 50% chance of playing on SUNDAY. 3 days from now! I had mine removed early on a Sunday morning and I wasn't even released from the hospital for 48 hours. I don't know if this is just posturing on the part of the Kansas City Chiefs because they don't want to have to admit that they're headed into a big divisional showdown with the San Diego Chargers with Brodie Croyle under center or what- Croyle is 0-9 in his career as a starter by the way. But if Cassel really is able to play, damn. Thanks for making me look like a huge wuss. Jerk.

Photo Courtesy:  arrowheadaddict.com

End of an Era... Again... This Time for Real?

Urban Meyer will be stepping down as the coach of the Florida Gators after their bowl game. While Meyer made a similar announcement a year ago before later changing his mind, it appears that this is the real deal this time. Meyer, who has spent the last 6 seasons with the Gators has put together quite a resume in his decade of being a head coach. Starting with Bowling Green in 2001, Meyer never had a losing season and has averaged better than 10 wins a year with Bowling Green, Utah and Florida. Entering his final game he is 103-23, including 6-1 in Bowl Games. In his first year with Bowling Green he took a team that had been 2-9 in 2000 and turned in an 8-3 season. In 2004, he was part of the first non-BCS conference school to be awarded a BCS bowl when he took 11-0 Utah to the Fiesta Bowl where they didn't just show they belonged, but absolutely flattened Big East Conference Champion Pitt 35-7.  He boasts 2 national championships, 2 Mountain West Championships, 2 SEC Championships, and 3 SEC Eastern Division Titles, as well as a slough of Coach of the Year Awards inlcuding being both the Sports Illustrated and the Sporting News Coach of the Decade. Ironically, he'll end his coaching career coaching against Penn St. and Joe Paterno. While Meyer is stepping down after 10 years, Joe Paterno has been the head coach of Penn St. since 1966. To put that in perspective, Urban Meyer was born in 1964.

It's no doubt that Florida will miss him, but they'll recover. Before Meyer and Tebow there was Steve Spurrier and Danny Wuerrffel. The Gators time will come again.

I'll leave you today with my introduction to Urban Meyer which came from Nike's Briscoe High Football commercials:

Two-a-Days

Opening Day

Breaking Down the Heisman Candidates

3 quarterbacks and a running back will make up the pool of finalists for this year's Heisman Trophy: Auburn Quarterback Cam Newton, Oregon Running Back LaMichael James, Stanford Quarterback Andrew Luck and Boise State Quarterback Kellen Moore.

The Case for Newton

Cam Newton is arguably the best player on the best team having lead the #1 ranked Tigers to a 13-0 mark and tallying 49 touchdowns- 28 passing, 20 rushing, and 1 receiving. Newton threw for 2589 yards and rushed for another 1409. In 6 different games he ran for over 150 yards including 217 yards against then undefeated LSU. In the SEC Championship game Newton completed 17 of 28 passes for a season high 335 yards and 4 Touchdowns while also running for a pair of scores.

Newton's 49 yarder against LSU


The Case for James

Oregon's dynamic playmaker ran for 1682 yards and 21 touchdowns in just 11 games. Suspended for the season opening 72-0 win against New Mexico, one can imagine how ridiculous his statistics could have been. James also caught 13 passes for 169 yards and a touchdown. Nine times this season James eclipsed the 100 yard mark and 3 times he went over 200 yards. His best game of the season came against Stanford when he ran for 257 yards and 3 touchdowns. James had 8 games this season where he scored at least two touchdowns and his Ducks will now take on Auburn for the National Championship.

James wild 72 yarder versus Tennessee


The Case for Luck

Any other year, the 6'4" junior would be a favorite to win the award after throwing for 3051 yards and 28 touchdowns with just 7 interceptions. He also ran for 438 yards and 3 scores, including a pair of 50+ yarders. Luck threw 4 touchdowns in a game 3 times, 3 touchdowns 2 more times, and eclipsed 300 yards 3 times. Luck was a huge reason that Stanford was awarded a BCS bowl this year as they'll face off against Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl. He also had this absolutely devastating tackle against USC.

Quarterback or Free Safety?


The Case for Moore

If Boise State had remained undefeated and somehow snuck into the National Championship game we'd probably be talking a lot more about Moore. The junior completed over 70% of his passes and went over 3500 yards on the year with 33 touchdowns and only 5 interceptions. He threw for over 300 yards 4 times and threw at least 3 touchdowns 8 times. He also had a 507 yard game against Hawaii.

Moore vs Hawaii Highlights


Prediction

This award has to go to Cam Newton. If it doesn't, then the Heisman voting process will look even worse than the BCS. What do you think?

Are the Pats Playing the Winnipeg Jets?

4 minutes left in the 3rd quarter and here we are. Patriots 31, Jets 3. Huh? Isn't this supposed to be a Patriots team that's last in every statistical category on defense? And isn't this a Jets team that prides itself on making life miserable for opposing offenses? Not so much today. Tom Brady has been able to do whatever he wants against Rex Ryan's squad and the Jets have just been a total comedy of errors. And as if to validate that statement, as I type this sentence Mark Sanchez just threw another interception. The Jets have missed a field goal, shanked a punt, missed tackles, blown coverages, dropped passes, made bad challenges, turned the ball over... You name it, they've found a way to screw it up. New England came into this game not just looking to avenge a 28-14 loss in New York earlier this year, but looking to make a big time statement. This is the best team in the AFC. And they're not looking at taking their foot off the gas in this one. The way the Jets look right now, they'll be lucky if this game doesn't end up 52-3.
  
 



















  Photo Courtesy: espn.com

And His Hair was Perfect...

Big time players make big time plays. Down 10-6 against the Ravens with a little over 3 minutes to go in the 4th quarter, Troy Polamalu comes flying in untouched on the safety blitz and karate chops an unsuspecting Joe Flacco as he's getting ready to throw the ball down field. Fumble, Steelers recover, Pittsburgh ball inside the Baltimore 10. Three plays later, Roethlisberger hits Isaac Redman on a 9 yard touchdown pass, and that right there ends up being the difference in the ballgame. The win puts the Steelers in first place in the AFC North, one game ahead of the Ravens with three games to play.

Polamalu's Game Saving Play

Equally notable, in the battle of defensive stars with ridiculous commercials, Polamalu gets the edge over Ray Lewis. 13 tackles, 12 solo for Lewis, Polamalu only 5 tackles, 4 solo, but the huge sack fumble that turned the game.

Ray Lewis for Old Spice

Troy Polamalu for Head & Shoulders

Sunday Six Pack

Lots to write about today, so here it goes...

MBENGA!!!

So Friday night Brian ‘Angryman’ Lied and I caught the Hornets – Knicks game up at the Hive. This was my second Hornets experience of the season having caught the Hornets upset win over the Miami Heat a couple of weeks ago. One key difference in this one though: No David West for the Hornets. With their leading scorer sidelined by a stomach virus we were instead treated to a heavy dose of Jason Smith and DJ Mbenga. While the two combined for 16 points and 8 rebounds, West’s presence was clearly missed. The Hornets managed to shoot just 43%, turned the ball over 19 times, and hit just 3 of 14 3’s. The Knicks meanwhile were paced by 34 points and 10 rebounds from Amare Stoudemire and had the inside-outside game working as 5 different players combined to knock down 13 3 pointers while winning the game 100-92.

Last time Angry and I took in a game was in 2004 up in Boston back when Ron Artest was still a Pacer. I want to say it was the game before the big melee in Detroit. This one went a lot better for us, as leading up to the last game we made one of the more epic beeramids you’ll ever see. As a result, our recollection of said basketball game was pretty hazy. This time we paced ourselves a little bit better and as a result it was a much more enjoyable experience. Also, yelling out MBENGA! any time anything cool happens was pretty awesome.





































JETER SIGNS

All is well in the universe again. Derek Jeter will still be a Yankee and with 2926 hits on the books, he’s likely to reach the 3000 hit milestone as a Yankee in 2011. As it should be. They probably overpaid him (rumored $51M for 3 years guaranteed), but let’s be honest here. The Yankees overpay a lot of people. That’s what they’ve done for years; essentially throw money at any problems they might have. But if you were going to throw too much money at someone, this was the guy you should do it to. The last Yankees opening day shortstop before Derek Jeter? In 2001, Jeter started the season on the DL and Luis Sojo got the call on Opening Day, but going back to the pre-Jeter era it was Tony Fernandez in 1995. That lineup also included Don Mattingly, Danny Tartabull, Wade Boggs and Jimmy Key.
























Photo Courtesy: benfry.com


BIG PUMA A CARDINAL? GREAT...

When the Astros traded Lance Berkman to the Yankees last year, while I wasn’t thrilled with it, I understood it was a necessary move. The Astros needed to rebuild, Lance was going to get a chance to play for a contender, and the fact that he was going to the American League made it a little bit more palatable. But now, Lance Berkman is coming back to the NL Central and teaming up with Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday after signing a 1 yr $8M deal with St. Louis. FANTASTIC. Just what I really want to see, Lance Berkman in the opposing lineup for 15 games next year. I would be willing to wager that at least once, he's going to single-handedly win a game against the Astros next season.




It’ll be interesting to see how the Big Puma does in St. Louis because they already have a first baseman and I don’t think Albert Pujols is going anywhere. It sounds like Matt Holliday is willing to move from left to right though so Berkman could find himself out in the outfield again. There’s some question to whether he’ll be able to handle the position nowadays with his health problems in recent years, but let’s be honest. If Carlos Lee can be an every day leftfielder in the NL Central, I think the Puma can handle himself out there.




Photo Courtesy: connect.in.com





THE BCS MATCHUPS ARE SET

The 5 BCS bowl matchups were set tonight and no surprise it's going to be Auburn and Oregon in the National Championship Game. TCU, Stanford, Arkansas and Ohio State picked up the 4 at large bids. The only team that doesn't appear to fit in is unranked Big East Champion Connecticut, but otherwise the top 8 teams in the BCS standings all qualified. Tough to really argue that they got it wrong this year. As much as I dislike the BCS, Oregon - Auburn is the right answer.

Here's how the BCS matchups breakdown:

National Championship - Auburn (13-0) vs Oregon (12-0)
Rose Bowl - TCU (12-0) vs Wisconsin (11-1)
Orange Bowl - Stanford (11-1) vs Virginia Tech (11-2)
Sugar Bowl - Ohio State (11-1) vs Arkansas (10-2)
Fiesta Bowl - Oklahoma (11-2) vs Connecticut (8-4)

And the rest of the bowls:

New Mexico Bowl - BYU vs UTEP
uDrove Humanitarian Bowl - Northern Illinois vs Fresno St.
R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl - Ohio vs Troy
Beef 'O' Brady's St. Petersburg Bowl - Southern Miss vs Louisville
MAACO Las Vegas Bowl - Utah vs Boise St.
S.D. County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl - Navy vs San Diego St.
Sheraton Hawaii Bowl - Hawaii vs Tulsa
Little Caesars Bowl - Florida International vs Toledo
AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl - Air Force vs Georgia Tech
Champs Sports Bowl - West Virginia vs NC State
Insight Bowl - Missouri vs Iowa
Military Bowl Presented by Northrop Grumman - East Carolina vs Maryland
Texas Bowl - Illinois vs Baylor
Valero Alamo Bowl - Oklahoma St. vs Arizona
Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl - Army vs SMU
New Era Pinstripe Bowl - Kansas St. vs Syracuse
Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl - North Carolina vs Tennessee
Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl - Nebraska vs Washington
Meineke Car Care Bowl - South Florida vs Clemson
Hyundai Sun Bowl - Notre Dame vs Miami
AutoZone Liberty Bowl - Georgia vs UCF
Chick-fil-A Bowl - South Carolina vs Florida St.
TicketCity Bowl - Northwestern vs Texas Tech
Outback Bowl - Florida vs Penn St.
Capital One Bowl - Alabama vs Michigan St.
Gator Bowl - Mississippi St. vs Michigan
GoDaddy.com Bowl - Middle Tennessee St. vs Miami (Ohio)
AT&T Cotton Bowl - LSU vs Texas A&M
BBVA Compass Bowl - Pitt vs Kentucky
Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl - Nevada vs Boston College

Anyone else think the names of some of these bowls are getting a little ridiculous?



5084 BECOMING OUT OF REACH

Kyle Orton came into the day leading the NFL in passing yards. He was absolutely manhandled in Kansas City completing just 9 passes for 117 yards. Number two Phillip Rivers struggled against the Raiders and had his 4th straight sub-300 yard game finishing at 280 in a losing effort. Manning and Brees both eclipsed 300 yards, but Manning threw 4 more picks and 2 more pick sixes giving him 11 interceptions over the past 3 games. Still, his 365 yards put him in the lead with 3709. All 4 are off the pace now, with really just Manning, Rivers and Brees still in the hunt.

Peyton Manning - 3709 yards - Pace: 4945
Phillip Rivers - 3642 yards - Pace: 4856
Drew Brees - 3634 yards - Pace: 4845



THE NFC WEST

Don’t look now but the NFC West has a pair of .500 teams! Seattle throttled the Carolina Panthers 31-14 and the Rams knocked off division rival Arizona 19-6 on the road. Next up for the Rams is a showdown with the Saints. The Rams played their former NFC West Rival tough last season losing just 28-23 despite being in the midst of a season where they only won one game and that was against the hapless Lions. Seattle heads to San Francisco to play the 49ers. In their meeting earlier in the season, Seattle dominated them in every aspect of the game and won 31-6. Could one of these NFC West teams end up over .500 next week?


 




















 Photo Courtesy: flockaball.com