Robert Griffin III (Keith Allison, Wikimedia Commons)
There are four games that matter immensely in the National Football League this weekend–the two NFC East matchups and the NFC North matchups.
The winner of Washington-Dallas (Sunday, NBC, 6 p.m.) wins the NFC East. Despite winning six straight games, the Redskins (9-6) may have to win a seventh to qualify for the postseason. In their first game on American Thanksgiving Day, Robert Griffin III had four touchdown passes, and 311 passing yards in a 38-31 Washington win. The Dallas Cowboys (8-7) are eliminated from the playoffs with a loss.
If Washington loses, they can still qualify for the postseason with a Minnesota loss to Green Bay (Sunday, FOX, 2 p.m.) and a Chicago loss to Detroit (Sunday, TSN2, 11 a.m.).
The Vikings (9-6) are in a difficult spot as they have to host the Packers (11-4), who are battling San Francisco for the number two seed. Minnesota clinches a playoff spot with a win and could also get into the playoffs with a Washington win, Detroit win and Philadelphia win over the New York Giants (Sunday, FOX, 11 a.m.).
Two of the best teams in the NFC will battle this weekend as the Seattle Seahawks (9-5) host the San Francisco 49ers (10-3-1).
Both of these teams have played stellar defense all season long and rank 1-2 in the NFL in fewest points allowed. The 49ers have given up 218 points, and the Seahawks have given up 219 points.
However, it is the teams’ offenses that need to be praised just as much. Seattle has scored 108 points the last two games, and San Francisco put up 41 points against New England last week. Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch has had a minimum of 100 yards rushing in 8 games this season.
The Seahawks and 49ers will battle on NBC at 6:00 p.m. Sunday night.
Here are the other games I’ll be watching this weekend:
Saturday–NFL–Atlanta Falcons @ Detroit Lions–ABC–6:30 p.m.–With the NFL deciding not to have a game Christmas Eve, the Monday nighter has moved to Saturday. At 12-2 the Falcons can clinch first place in the NFC with a victory. The Falcons had a major statement game last week as they shut out the New York Giants 34-0. Julio Jones had two touchdown receptions in Atlanta’s win.
The National Football League is coming down the stretch to the end of the regular season with five games that will be available for viewers to watch.
Here they are:
Sunday–New York Giants @ Atlanta Falcons–TSN2–11am–The NFC East leading New York Giants will be without running back Ahmad Bradshaw Sunday when they take on the NFC South leading Atlanta Falcons. That should be ok however based on the exceptional performance by David Wilson a week ago against the Saints, where he had 100 yards on just 13 carries. The Giants are 8-5 and the Falcons are 11-2.
Sunday–Denver Broncos @ Baltimore Ravens–CBS–11am–The Ravens did something stunning this week. They fired offensive co-ordinator Cam Cameron, despite scoring the fifth most points in the AFC. The firing is stunning because it has been the Ravens’ defense that has been struggling with its veterans just getting older. Both teams are headed to the postseason with Denver at 10-3 and Baltimore at 9-4.
I will be watching four kinds of football this weekend–the professional and collegiate variety from both sides of the border.
Obviously the biggest games are the Canadian Football League’s divisional semi-finals.
In the East, the Toronto Argonauts are hosting the Edmonton Eskimos (Sunday, 11am, TSN) in a game that is featuring former Eskimo Ricky Ray, now at quarterback for Toronto. The Eskimos finished the season at 7-11 and the Argonauts at 9-9. However Edmonton did beat Toronto in both meetings this year, 19-15 on June 30 and 26-17 on August 27.
Indianapolis Colts’ quarterback Andrew Luck is now in the record books. Sunday, Luck broke the NFL record for most passing yards by a rookie quarterback in a single game as the Indianapolis Colts defeated the Miami Dolphins 23-20.
Luck threw for 433 yards and broke Cam Newton’s record for most passing yards in a game. Newton set the NFL rookie record last year by throwing 432 yards in a 30-23 Carolina loss to Green Bay last season. Indianapolis improves to 5-3, while Miami drops to 4-4.
In other NFL action, Isaac Redman ran for 147 yards as the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the New York Giants 24-20. The Giants had a short week of practice because of Hurricane Sandy and the storm was strong enough to cause severe flooding in Eli Manning’s New Jersey home. The Steelers improve to 5-3, while the Giants drop to 6-3.
Meanwhile, Doug Martin is starting to become quite possibly the best running back in the NFL. He was outstanding Sunday as he set Buccaneers records for most rushing yards in a game (251) and most rushing touchdowns in a game (four) as Tampa Bay beat Oakland 42-32.
The most dominant football team in Alberta is not in the Canadian Football League, but in Canadian Interuniversity Sport. On Saturday night at McMahon Stadium, the University of Calgary Dinos (7-1) will host the University of Manitoba in the Hardy Cup semi-final (Saturday, SHAW TV, 5pm).
Quarterback Eric Dzwilewski of Boise, Idaho set a Canada West Conference record with a 70.6 completion percentage, and helped set team records for most points, touchdowns, first downs, passing yards, completions and total yards of offense in 2012.
The Edmonton Eskimos have a chance of clinching a playoff spot on Sunday when they play the Montreal Alouettes. At 7-9 they sit in last place in the Western Division, but will qualify for the postseason in the crossover into the East because they will have a better record than the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
The Eskimos will not have running back Hugh Charles in their lineup. Charles suffered a knee injury in the Eskimos’ 39-19 loss to the B.C. Lions last Friday. The Eskimos then brought back Cory Boyd this past week to backup Jerome Messam.
The Edmonton Eskimos will face a difficult challenge Saturday against the Saskatchewan Roughriders at Commonwealth Stadium (Saturday, TSN, 2pm).
Luckily, they will have linebacker J.C. Sherritt, maybe the best defensive player in all of football back in the lineup.
This is a monumental game for Edmonton (6-8), who will not only want to expand their lead on the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (5-10) in a possible crossover, but will want to win the season series against the Roughriders (8-6), because with a victory, they will only be two points back of Saskatchewan in the Western Division. Saskatchewan meanwhile is playing great football lately. They have now won three in a row after beating the Toronto Argonauts 36-10 on Thanksgiving.
The 39th Ryder Cup is currently taking place just outside of Chicago. On Day 1, the Americans took an early 5-3 lead on Europe thanks to some brilliant shot making by Keegan Bradley, Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson and Jason Dufner.
On day two (Saturday, NBC, 7am), there will be four foursome matches in the morning, followed by four fourball matches in the afternoon. The best morning matchup will be Bradley and Mickelson against England’s Lee Westwood and Luke Donald. An interesting morning omission by Davis Love III is Tiger Woods, who played much better in the afternoon on Friday in four ball action than he did in the foursome with partner Steve Stricker in the morning.
Another golfer to watch out for on Saturday is Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts, who will be teamed with Spain’s Sergio Garcia against Americans Zach Johnson and Jason Dufner. Colsaerts had eight birdies and an eagle on Friday afternoon.
The Ryder Cup will then conclude Sunday with singles play (NBC, 10am).
This week on 15 Minutes of Fame, we recap Super Bowl XLVI between the NY Giants and the New England Patriots, we take a look back at Sam Gagner’s eight-point night against the Blackhawks and we try to figure out if the Edmonton Oilers still have a shot at the playoffs, and who might not be on the team when the trade deadline hits.
In the GABBYs: NHL milestones, Shaun White, Rubellos, Zimbabwe soccer, John Foley and Alex Radulov. The Punchline this week is Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson.
If you are a football fan that is absolutely mesmerized and shaking your head that the New York Giants won the Super Bowl this season, you’re simply not alone.
No team was so great against the elite and so brutal against the below average/ordinary teams this season than the New York Football Giants. In fact, their overall inconsistencies this season was so inordinary, I have a difficult time accepting the fact they are Super Bowl champions.
But here I am trying to analyze this football team and it has left me mildly speechless. I think my best explanation is the Giants this season were a football club that got hot at just the right time. They were able to show dominance on both sides of the football when they needed to most even though there were several hiccups along the way in the regular season.
The Giants were not the best team in the regular season. They were far from it. But at 9-7, they won the NFC East and then beat the Atlanta Falcons, Green Bay Packers, San Francisco 49ers and New England Patriots. If you beat those four teams in postseason play, you simply deserve the title.
In the Giants 21-17 win Sunday in Indianapolis, Eli Manning was the game MVP after he completed 30 of 40 passes for 296 yards and a touchdown. But I don’t think it will be his two yard first quarter touchdown throw to Victor Cruz that people will remember most. It will be a 38 yard pass to Mario Manningham when the Giants were on their own 12 yard line and trailing 17-15 with just over three minutes left that people will remember most.
Manningham caught the ball with remarkable precision near the sideline and was able to get both feet in bounds by the slimmest of margins. Sure, the Giants had their luck along way. On the Patriots previous drive, Wes Welker dropped a Tom Brady pass that would have gone for at least 30 yards.
But the Patriots simply couldn’t execute like the Giants today. The Giants might not have been flashy but over the last month, they were the team to make the least mistakes and that is why they are Super Bowl Champions.
Super Bowl XLVI takes place tomorrow from Indianapolis, as the New York Giants play the New England Patriots in a rematch of the Super Bowl from 2007 when the Giants beat the Patriots 17-14 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Currently the Patriots are a 2.5 point favourite.
With all the talk that the Giants have the better defense than the Patriots, I simply don’t buy it. The Patriots allowed 58 fewer points than the Giants this season.
Offensively, there has been some concern regarding who Tom Brady will be able to throw to at the tight end position with Rob Gronkowski hurt. People must remember that Aaron Hernandez is the best backup tight end in the NFL.
I’m picking the Patriots to win their fourth Super Bowl 34-16. For more information on Super Bowl XLVI please go to my blog earlier in the week.
Is it me, or does anyone disagree with the notion that there still should be two weeks between the NFL Conference Championships and the Super Bowl?
For those that just might have forgotten, the New England Patriots beat the Baltimore Ravens 23-20 in the AFC Championship and the New York Giants beat the San Francisco 49ers 20-17 in overtime for the NFC Championship to set up Sunday’s big game from Indianapolis.
If you watched the Pro Bowl in Hawaii this past weekend, and apparently saw Brandon Marshall of the Miami Dolphins record four touchdown receptions, shame on you. How can you have an All-Star Game when the two best teams in the league aren’t represented?
After four days of being down, I am glad to report that AnySportAnyTime is back up and running again. Thank-you to all of our loyal readers for being patient with us.
Here is a recap over what has happened the last four days.
In football, there were two very bizarre Conference Championships that will be remembered more for mistakes made than great plays. In the NFC Championship, Kyle Williams of the San Francisco 49ers dropped a punt in the fourth quarter and again in OT to lead the Giants to a 20-17 overtime win. In the AFC Championship, Ravens kicker Billy Cundiff missed a chip shot field goal late in the fourth quarter to preserve a 23-20 New England win.
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